Haying Time – 3D Scratch Built Diorama 1:25 scale
My hope in building this diorama was to capture the farming of my youth—1980s dairy farming. Back when 50-80 cow milking herds were sprinkled all over the Midwest and every summer was filled with haying. For us, first crop always went up the silos. Silo filling was easy, the machinery did all the work. But when second crop came and the baler came out of the shed, the labor intensive second crop hit right in the heat of summer.
Whether you stood on a wagon stacking bales, or unloaded the Tetris-like jumble of thrower racks, baling hay is the quintessential image of farming. It's these memories with the smell of alfalfa, hemp twine and diesel fuel that inspired me to pursue this build.
The Build
First off, this entire diorama is scratch-built. Well, let's put an asterisk to that, the figure is mostly a purchased kit and we'll get into that later. But, the tractor, baler, wagon and even the hay bales themselves are all fabricated with resin, styrene, styrofoam, static grass and my own limited skill set. I've dissected the build into all the various elements to give a bit of insight as to how this three month project came together. It was a very enjoyable journey.
Hay Wagon
There are two main types of hay wagons: flat racks where a person rides on the wagon and stacks the bales as they come out of the baler, and thrower racks with sides to capture the bales as they are ejected from the baler. This build required a thrower rack.
H&S Manufacturing out of Marshfield, WI was, and still is, a prolific builder of all types of utility farm machinery that can be found all over the midwest (including the farms I worked on) so that was the thrower rack I decided to include in the vignette. I designed the running gear and full thrower rack in 3D. Surely this all could have been printed via the Elegoo Saturn 2, but the print time was 11 hours and I would have sacrificed a great deal of resin to achieve the end result. So, I decided to print the running gear, tires, and just the floor of the wagon. The rest was to be scratch built the old fashion way—with styrene.
This method proved the perfect solution. I added a bit of metal mesh for the gate and some scale chain to anchor the gate to the wagon. A bit of texture painting helped achieve the worn finish of the floor boards and some dry brush paint chipping helped age the wagon to a well-used patina.
Hay Bales
I hunted high and low for pre-manufactured hay bales that would work for this to save myself the monotony of constructing them. Well, that didn't happen so I had to figure out how to make them. I ended up using pink styrofoam, primed OD green, painted with white glue and coated them with a mix of light green and dark green 4mm static grass. Once that was dry I twisted a couple of strands of embroidery thread together and glued the twine on each bale. Once that was all dry I used hot glue to place them in a strategically random pile in the wagon.
John Deere 336 Baler
The 336 was the most commonly seen baler during the 1980s. It was the evolution of the John Deere 24T streamlined and modernized, but the essential functionality did not change. Most, if not all, were equipped with the No. 40 bale ejector—more commonly know as the “Kicker,” based on the motion it made when kicking the bales into the wagon.
I began with 2D illustrations of the side and top of the baler to get everything the correct scale to match the 1/25 tractor. I wasn't too sure how much detail to build into the baler because there are some pretty intricate components within the twine knotters and kicker. As per my usual MO, I decided to add as much detail as the 3D printer could handle. After all the details matter—right?
The biggest challenge in the printing process for the baler was the kicker screens. The first couple of times they were too thin and regardless of how I cured them they wanted to warp. I ended up thickening the screens and brackets a bit larger than scale to prevent warping. In the end, this satisfied the construction without sacrificing aesthetics.
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- 1. Twine Box
- 2. Twine
- 3. Knotters
Lastly, I wanted to add some action to the scene so I attempted to replicate an actual bale in the air on its way to the wagon. I modeled the kicker pan in mid-swing and devised a wire to support the bale in the air midway to the wagon. This was first attempted with a clear 1/8” rod, but it ended up being too visible, I think the fine wire works better.
John Deere 4320
The “Super” 4020. Essentially the 4320 was a 4020 with a factory turbo that filled a horsepower gap in the John Deere lineup between the 96 hp 4020 and the much larger 130hp 4520. Built 1971-1972, the 4320 produce 115 hp from the factory, it also boasted a heavier frame, larger fuel tank, and other purpose-built features.
I modeled the tractor a while back. Since it's essentially a “pumped up” 4020, the heavy work was reconfiguring the engine. It's the same 404 ci engine, but many of the components are different from its little brother. I also opted to add the ROPs (Roll Over Protection) and canopy. During the building process I made sure I had the control levers and gear shift in working positions vs. a parked tractor.
The Farmer
As stated earlier, the base figure is a trucker figure from Master Box. Can I just pause to vent a bit about the limited number of figures available in 1:24/1:25 scale. So, what's builder to do? I searched for STL files of any driver that might be a viable option to no avail and I wasn't about to learn figure modeling myself. So, I Frankensteined the trucker model into a farmer. This included drilling holes and threading wire for the arms so I could place them in the correct location before gluing the whole thing together. I also printed a different head as the kit figure has a huge, ridiculous smile on his face. Once I got things close to the correct position and fitted to the tractor the farmer was finished using Zenithal figure painting techniques.
Field Base
With all the machinery complete, I focused on the base. A cut hay field doesn't look like a mowed lawn. It looks less lush since the taller forage has been cut down. I tracked down a Fall field mat for scale railroading and used that as the base. Of course it didn't look exactly right, so I decided to add static grass to the entire base to add some height to the field stubble.
The windrows of hay were constructed much the same as the finished bales. These have a base of 4mm static grass with an additional layer of 12mm static grass to achieve the look of longer, downed hay.
Final Touches
I wired all the pieces to the base and then using Tamiya powers added dust to the top surfaces of the tractor and baler to help replicate the environment. I feel the whole vignette came together well and I'm pretty proud of this one. So there you have it—my farming memories in miniature. Thanks for following along, comment away.
Well, I'm a 2nd generation farmer here in Scotland and what you've made is just incredible! Like you I grew up with the 1970's 1980's machinery finally taking over myself in 1986. We ran with our own machinery for a good while. Now it's all contractors with massive tractors and foragers. 2000 cow dairys. No fun any more! And that's in Scotland! God knows what the US is like now.
Superb bit of nostalgia!
@ross4 You said it my friend. People often mention, "the good old days." and then say they weren't that good. But, I think we can both attest that there was those were the glory days.
Thanks for your kind words.
Speechless, Matt! What a wonderful diorama! I can smell the field!
Congratulations my friend!
@fiveten thank you my friend.
Matt, I have to say that this diorama is without doubt one of the very best dioramas on display here at iModeler - a serious contender for best of all. Like every truly great diorama, every element has been created to the same quality level, and the "story" the diorama tells is simple and direct and everything is aimed at telling it. The level of talent and craftsmanship on display in each of the separate constructions is incredible. As Spiros said, one can smell the hay in the field. I stand in awe of something I'd never even think of attempting.
And you're so right about how the corporatization of agriculture has destroyed what was the best about farming. You can tell it every time you go to the grocery store and think to yourself "This stuff isn't as good as it used to be."
@tcinla I’m humbled by your comments. I have found that the more I build what I know, what fuels my passion, the better I can pull it off.
I love to build planes and armor and learn the story of the machine and/or pilot along the way, but bringing things to the 3D world that are part of me feels good. And it feels great to have fellow builders I respect praise my work. Appreciated.
This is as wonderful as I imagined it would be when you told me about it awhile back. All the details are spot on - even the "uniform", blue jeans and blue work shirt, just like I wore. We must have had a 24T bailer (very tired old machine) but very similar to the one you modeled. Excellent work!
Us farm kids gotta stick together. My grandpa had a 24T with a kicker. The 336 was on the bigger farm I worked on. I was thinking about building a 24T, but it was more complicated :). Thanks for stopping by to check it out.
Fantastic work, Matt, really well thought out, and brought to life by the details.
This is an absolute wonderful diorama, Matt @coondog
All the scratchbuilding you did is amazing.
This scene reminds me of helping my uncle on his farm in the early 80's. I really enjoyed the days at the farm bringing the cows to the fields in the morning, taking them back at the late evenings and in between do the haying in a similar way like on your display. I really loved that life.
Well done.
Dear Matt @coondog
Such a beautiful diorama, all the small detail. We don't have farms that large here in Switzerland but i too can feel the heat of a field in the summer. What i also like a lot is the topic - finally something non military, without arms. Wonderful work!
Fantastic work and dynamic result, Matt, brings back how we did it up to 1998, though all our equipment was red. We've round baled since then. One man can do the whole show, but it misses something. I look forward to your next project.