Dawn on the farm

I have now fastened the old farm and mountain road in place in front of the backdrop and connected up the farm house and shed...

Smell the coffee and listen for the rooster as the farmer starts the tractor...

Preparation for the farm

Now that I have got the track in the area under the farm in place (and tested) I decided I could start preparing the support for the farm taken from my previous layout.

I wired in the bit of track in the back of the farm and then cut some supports to length for a trial fitting. I used a laser line to get things the right height.

Farm road

I have now completed the road that runs past the farm. I also installed a fence along the farm side of the road.

I painted white lines by laboriously applying masking tape in parallel stripes, leaving a narrow gap between them for the paint. It was not easy.

Milk churns at the farm

The farmer puts his milk churns out next to the road where they are picked up each morning and returned later.

Sheep

I installed 66 sheep, a shepherd with a lamb, and 2 sheep dogs

Busch HO 6003 sunflowers kit

I have installed some sunflowers from the Busch HO 6003 kit.

Assembly was very easy, bend the leaves, paint the flower centers, push stalks into yellow petals.

I decided to glue them directly into holes in the ground rather than use the supplied plastic base.

The kit contains 60 plants. Recommended.

Preiser sheep 14160 and 14411

I have always regarded Preiser as a top quality manufacturer of HO scale people and animals and some time ago I purchased two Preiser sets of sheep.

The first set is 14160 which includes a shepherd, a sheep dog and six sheep.

The second set is 14411 which contains 60 sheep.

Tractor shed with light

I modified an old Faller kit (289) to create a place for the farmer to park his tractor and store some things such as diesel, oil, etc.

Busch cornfield

I bought the Busch cornfield catalog item HO 1202 for my farm.

The box contains 10 pairs of green 2 dimensional corn rows each 5mm wide and 10cm long giving 10cm² of corn, plus a small bag of flocking.

Ducks and geese

A small farm pond provides a home for the ducks and geese...

Chickens

I have some chicken sets dating from the 1960's and 1970's. A small girl has the duty of feeding them every day...

Pig Sty

Someone has the task of feeding the pigs - what a job...

Day and night lighting comparison

An experiment with our first building illuminated by LEDs.

I was wondering how noticeable the lighting would be under normal 'daytime' lighting...
The lights are on in this picture...

Farm with Faller Obersdorf backdrop

The area next to my mountain road will be farm land. Fences, a flock of sheep and a nice farm house have been ordered and my daughter painted my pigs and some of my old cows and two horses. Initial tryout looks realistic and I am pleased with how the backdrop works...

Building the farm mountain

After little progress for some months I decided to do more on the mountain on the Ostdorf side of my layout. I have given up with the idea of buying HO scale road material for the road as those made by Noch are simply way off scale (way to small) and I think the Faller ones are not flexible enough for the hairpin turn. I decided to simply paint the road. In fact last time I was in Home Depot I found a gallon of gray paint on their paint mistakes cart so I picked it up for $5

In July I ensured that the backdrop behind the mountain was in place.

I started by laying out the road that will connect Ostdorf with the outside world by road. It goes up a ramp to the corner mountain, through a hairpin and around out of sight behind the mountain. The road was cut from a single sheet of plywood..