Stabliofarmer

Send it my way John, desperate to get out skiing! The Scottish resorts have received some of the biggest dumping's I've seen

If the sales of toy farm machinery are anything like scratch built models then the Irish Market is significant in comparison with mainland UK, possibly the reason for the grass heavy catalogue. Given the forwardness of the Irish sales rep when I've met him at shows that possibly allows decisions to lean towards what would sell well in Ireland.

Interesting to hear. I assume new tooling would have been made in the same modern methods they use for the new products, wire-Edm errosion etc. Though given the item you want to replicate exists it would be possible to use a pantograph and go real old school!. Thanks for sharing this sort of insight is always interesting to hear.

There's a change at the top with Hornby, Lyndon Davies who has worked for Corgi his whole life as well as starting Oxford Diecast is CEO and seems to be moving things in the right direction. Hornby where hit hard in 09 when Sandra Kan, the factory that produced Hornby products alongside a number of smaller model railway brands, where bought out by Kader group, who own Bachmann. This gave Kader a monopoly and the divorce from Sandra Kan set them back heavily. The tide looks to slowly be turning though so we'll see how it pans out. They also have Airfix, Corgi and Scalextric under their wing which is quite the arsenal.

Yes, I have had a look at careers with TOMY/Britains as I finish Uni this year. From what I can see working for Britains isn't a thing, just jobs within TOMY so presumably Britains is managed by someone in control of a few brands hence the haphazardness? Just speculation though, Hornby group looks like a much more focused place to work.

I'd be interested to know the story with the E27N's. Are they built using the original 70 year old tooling? just with the axle area of the mould modified? Surely they either haven't kept hold of the moulds for all that time, or they weren't in good enough nick to use for a production run of 7500 items. Which would suggest they are new toolings... in which case why on earth make them so close to the original. Surely if you where making new tooling you'd go away and make a model that meets the same detail standards as the recent heritage range. To have an anniversary model and not demonstrate how the companies skills have moved on doesn't make much sense to me. Even if they kept the main casting and just put a new set of wheels and steering axle on it would be a significant improvement. Equally why not use the tooling for the plinthed 8715 version? Was this a diecast or a resin model? Either way it was a much more realistic representation than this new release. Maybe its just me, but if I wanted a heritage Britains item, I'd buy the vintage one, with actual heritage, not one that's just rolled of a production line thousands of miles away. Having said that I'll still be buying one or two of these releases because of the price

Different colour schemes are probably a release for a following year

Nice work Andy, something different

Last time I put in an order shipping was €8.34. The parts where made in the Netherlands and the order was early December, so I would anticipate a change in the price. I have attached a photo of the 'fine detail plastic' prints that I had done. The detail is very good with very minimal lines like you get on lower quality print methods.

Interesting ideas, I think the issue with nettles at 1:32 is that each plant is large enough to be noticeable as an individual piece. The only idea I have is to paint some broom bristles a deep burgundy and put three dollops of pva along each bristle. Then dip the bristle in a bowl full of stamped leaves made of green card stamped with a green stuff world leaf stamp. Hopefully the leaves would stick and give three levels of leaf around the bristle stem. Repeat hundreds of times and then plant them all bunched up. Sound painfully time consuming though!

Well worth the time, very effective. I don't suppose you've any ideas for nettles? It's one thing I've never found in any blogs or websites, other than some photoetched brass ones that where a small fortune.

That is just a whole other level Ted. Are they home made or a shop buy?

Thank you for the kind words folks, always trying to share as much as I can in the hope of spreading the hobby!

Ted, that's just out of this world! I've never seen greenery modelled so well on a model farm, and I'm questioning if I've even seen it better in the model railway world. The blend onto the existing layout is spot on too! The 009 site is a great resource, lost many an hour in there.

Looks well Sean, I'm guessing its some piece of plumbing you've used for the dome?

Thank you Ben, Customer photos starting to come in now set up to slightly fancier models than Siku!

Assembly went relatively easy. A few bits of paint needed sanding back to get a good fit, but bar that all went well. And this was the final outcome. I'm very proud of what's produced here.

Thank you Stan. Everything will be in the instruction manual. The colour was a difficult one, I was speaking with Pete Heath, the boss, about paint as he had one of the built models. They are painted 'Heath Green' their own colour that he didn't have a recipe for. It was simply described as 'a bit lighter than John Deere Green', I have opted for RAL 6001 after first purchasing RAL 6037 and deciding it was a little too in your face bright. 6001 seems a good compromise.

With everything finalised concentration turns to mass production. A batch of 7 finished models where planned. All the parts going together (note there's only six in the photos, number seven was built first and used to take all the photos for the kit versions instruction manual). Primer going on, a fair bit of paint alround! Note to self, don't plan builds that require such a large area to paint in the middle of winter. The view from the garage as I was putting primer on, not primer painting weather! Top coat going on. I had planned to spray this with a gun to save cost, but with the weather I wanted to spend as little time as possible out in the garage, and to be able to easily warm the paint before application. Therefore I opted for rattle cans that can just go in some warm water.

Attention turns to the front now. The Bale pusher arm turns the Bale 90deg to allow the Bale to be picked up. I've made it from a few laser cut components and some resin. Also designed to take to a 3 point link, but comes with an A frame attachment as well.

With the basic laser cut structure finalised it was onto the little details. First is the support wheel on the front. It can be raised and lowered for field or road use. The real thing uses a slightly more complex linkage than what I've modelled. I'm just using a simple arm with a tiny ram made from the smallest two sections of a telescopic aerial. The next detailing was the MC2 telescopic Bale arm. This is where the biggest compromise comes in. The boom has five hydraulic cylinders in a very limited space. To get them all too work, while providing the model as a kit simply wouldn't be economical. Instead I have added the rams as non functioning resin details. Rather than the rams spanning all three sections they remain fixed in the top section. A compromise but the overall effect is adequate. The only other resin piece is the solenoid box on the side of the chassis. This looks like a simple piece but it fits in a high tolerance gap, on the top the bed sits above, the jack legs hinge down just behind it and the drawbar hinges just below it. Therefore the angles all have to be tight, and the underside has to have a degree of clearance. To get the shape this was drawn up on CAD, converted to an stl file and sent to a friend who has an FDM 3D printer. He printed it for me and I have filled and sand it to get a smooth finish. Then made a mould and cast it.

Very rake! as opposed to only a bit rake

Thanks Sean, yes tolerance is something you have to keep an eye on. The laser has a thing called kerf width, which is the size of material you loose as the laser evaporates it away, same as the saw width when using a circular saw. Ontop of this paint thickness has to be accounted for. By allowing about 0.25mm of play between parts the kerf width and paint thickness seem to have balanced out. The only point where I've slipped up is the green bale support leg that slides along the bed, this is pretty tight in the gap in the bed, and while clearing some of the structural frame. Thanks JEP, to get the design so close from just 2D pencil drawings was very satisfying and when everything eventually comes together it is very pleasing. Not that there aren't iterations in between that get launched across the shed in frustration! Thank you Barry, got to keep progressing or someone else will get their first! Scott was very helpful in providing a sneak peak at some up close CAD photos of the MC2 arm that he worked on.