PHPaul

Grain handling facility mostly done. Waiting on paint to dry on the motors for the elevators. For the non-farmer types that may be interested: When selling grain, moisture content affects prices. Also, it needs to be below a certain percentage to store well. It's often necessary to harvest before the grain has dried down to the ideal level, so grain drying facilities are common on larger farms. In this case, the freshly harvested high moisture grain goes in the bin on the right. It is transferred via the inner vertical (bucket) elevator to the propane fired dryer on the left. After reaching the target moisture content (which varies depending on the type of grain) it's transferred via the outer elevator to the dry grain tank on the left. In the center is the motor control panel for the elevators, bin unloaders and bin blowers.

One side complete. Other set printing now. The print time for a full set is right at 3 hours...

You just know some swamp-dwelling redneck (and I say that with nothing but love...) is gonna build a 1:1 version of that!

As I mentioned in my introduction post (nearly 2 years ago!) in addition to my 1/64 Farm diorama, I have a handful of 1/16 farm toys that have been modified in some way and various attachments for them built from scratch in brass. One of them was this John Deere 420C crawler. It was a child's toy originally and suffered the usual loss of small parts (steering levers, throttle, air cleaner, muffler) and the rubber tracks were destroyed. I stripped it, fashioned all the little details, build an inside frame dozer blade for it (didn't have one originally) and repainted and decaled it. I never did find a suitable replacement for the rubber tracks and a couple of attempts at building my own from rubber were unsatisfactory, so it went back into hibernation on the shelf. It occurred to me this morning that I might be able to make suitable track pads with my 3D printer. I googled around to get some basic dimensions of the 1:1 version and then I designed and printed 5 versions with minor tweaks between each until I came up with a version I liked. They're set up in pairs with "inside" and "outside" track chain links. Not true to the 1:1 design but the only practical solution I could come up with at that scale. They'll be pinned together with .035 brass wire. The sample pair articulates very nicely. Now all I need to do is print and assemble 32 pairs...

I love it! Great job on weathering the car, especially the engine.

Got utility power run to the service entrance on the shop.

Well, that explains something I've been wondering about. I've had a flock of Canadas hanging out around here for years. Sometimes as many as 50 in my pastures. Even had a mated pair raise their goslings in my lower pasture the last two years. This year, I've seen something I've never seen before. I have two old, wild apple trees in my back yard. I don't bother with pruning or spraying so the apples are usually wormy and scabby, but the deer don't seem to mind. This year, the GEESE are cleaning them all up! I've also had two pairs of twin fawns hanging out here all Summer and I've watched the geese chase them off so they can eat the apples! After a good breeze, there'll be a carpet of windfall apples under those trees in the morning. By sundown, they're usually all gone. They even "bob for apples" in the little drainage ditch that runs by the trees. I was wondering how they were "chewing" the apples, but that close-up of their maw certainly explains it! They don't bother the garden or anything else, other than producing goose poop all out of proportion to their size, so I just let them be.

I also finally finished (been most of a year in the process) a fairly accurate scale model of a Gehl self-propelled chopper. A feller that hangs out on one of the 1:1 tractor boards I frequent suggested it and was kind enough to provide pictures and measurements. Some other life-changes have resulted in quite a lot less clutter in my basement hobby area, and I'm thinking of adding some more acreage to the diorama. I can sneak in a piece 16" wide and 4 feet long which I think I'll use mostly for actual farm fields. Still mulling that one over.

The rumors of my passing are premature...😆 Busy Summer, converted a 20x24 toolshed into a heated shop. Hung a ceiling, insulated ceiling and walls with as much as I could fit in, covered everything with sheetrock, wired it, plumbed the air drops, installed a hot air furnace and moved all my 1:1 toys down there. A LOT of work and put a heck of a dent in my toy fund, but I was tired of working in an unheated garage. Now that it's late Fall, it's time to get back to modeling and working on the diorama. Still adding details here and there as they occur (or are suggested) to me. One suggestion was to add power lines. I had considered it earlier but was wary of the delicate nature of scale overhead wires. I finally settled on one 3 phase line and service drop to the shop and we'll assume everything else is fed via underground cables. I have the poles "planted" on the layout and am working on stringing the lines. More pix when it's finished. Someone mentioned that with all the tractors on the diorama, the occasional flat tire would be inevitable and adding a guy working on a tire would be appropriate. I found a suitable figure on a 3D printing website and resized to fit. Several suggestions were made about my grain handling options and some are under construction. A dump truck with a grain body on it was one, so I whipped the box and up on TinkerCAD and printed it out. The cylinder is just telescoping bits of Plastruct tubing. Also realized I needed a gas pump for all the farm vehicles, so designed and printed a 50's-style globe top pump. I've designed and printed out several items for a "grain leg". Basically, this is a conveyor/auger system for moving grain from bins to the dryer and back to storage bins, as well as unloading bins when grain is marketed. I'll post some pictures when that part of the project is a little further along.

Stunning work!

My approach to organization sort of evolves as my stash grows. At the moment, this set of cubby holes handles my plastic and brass shapes and the stand on top handles most of my paint. . I find that some PVC pipe glued to a square of plastic works well for storing brushes, pens, pipettes and such. I also made a couple to hold my glue bottles upside down so they're ready when I am.

Thank you, Roy. As/If/When I add more details and scenes, I'll update this post.

Nice! Major flashback for me, I had a 1:1 '69 Nova SS, 350/350. Green with a black interior. The green was a couple of shades darker than that, but it's close. Only "performance" car I've ever owned, wish I had it back!

Thanks, David. I know what you mean but for me it's not 'work' , it's therapy! I

Thank you!

Misunderstanding on both ends, I should have been clearer in my comments. All good.

Apologies for interjecting. By way of clarification - The Creality was a kit only in the sense that the beams for the z axis needed to be attached and aligned, the cog belts installed and some cables plugged in. I'll go away and mind my own business now.

"Assembling" or "building from scratch"? Assembling my Creality took less than an hour with really, REALLY cryptic instructions. Building is a whole other story.

Thanks, Gregory! I've been having way too much fun working on it. I add details here and there as they occur to me. I

Thank you, Bill. The resin printer explains a lot of it, I just have a PLA/ABS filament printer.

Gorgeous! Can you tell us about the printer, material, software and post-print processes you used to get those magnificent prints?

Thanks so much for all the kind comments! Gives me the courage to try something requiring a little more modification. '66 Nova this time, I'll post in WIP when there's something worth posting.

If you have access to a 3d printer, there are some on Thingiverse that look pretty good, tho I haven't actually printed one. Also, the open-mesh sandpaper used for sanding drywall joints might make a convincing radiator, depending on the scale.

1/16 would be the biggest I could use. Among other things, I want to file fishmouths into round stock for building frames and roll cages.

Yup, I have several but that's too big for my intended use.