G'day everyone, i am starting a dio that i will have pics of when its done, but i am having a stone barn with a couple of haystacks inside, ow can anyone help me by telling me how i would go about making 1:35 hay, and hay stacks, cheers, oh and later on today i will FINALLY have pics of all my work, mainly my dios, ive been saying this for ages now but its finally happening, hope you will all have a look at them once they are on

Anyone??? this is all thats holding me back from starting the dio???

Hi

I don't have a clue how to make a hay stack. How important are they to the dio? Can they be replaced with say farm equipment, animals,or stacks of lumber etc? Maybe if you played around with the design a little you can find somthing that can work. Hope it helps


Wolfsix

Yeah i could work around it, wouldve been nice to have some hay in it though, thnx for the idea

if you get an old big generic stiff paintbrush used to paint houses and such and cut up the bristles you can simulate hay pretty well i think. im using that for tall grass/reeds in my new dio. all you gotta do is cut the bristles to scale and paint em. im not very experienced by any means, so this might not be the best way

I assume you're wanting to make some sort of dome shaped stack? You might experiment with some sort of material like foam for the body and then coat it with some hay-like material. Maybe something like bristles cut from some cheap paintbrushes, larger ones like 2" or 3" inchers. You'd probably have to build the bottom up pretty thick for depth but you could probably thin it out as you went up towards the top.
Hay would be longer than static grass I think, but static grass around the base would be a nice effect. I'd like to hear what you use if find something!

hey lestweforget

its ONLY an idea, but the paintbrush bristles inspired me - so here goes : you could try using modelling clay, like milliput etc, to make a rough haystack shape, and whilte wet use your chopped up bristles and press them in randomly, lay them flat, poke them out etc, until the block is completely covered in bristles, spray paint it white once dry then base coat it brown, adding a darker, then lighter yellow as a maincoat and highlight, perhaps a final highlight with a cream color - use some twine/string for rope around them and bingo, one haystack!
hope thats clear (as mud) let me know if it helps, i might try it if it does lol

alpha :-)

That's waht I'm talkin' about! I like the idea of the clay because it would be easy to attach your "hay". You could also layer the clay over something else to keep the weight or amount of clay down. I'm all excited now! I'd love to see this thing get completed! :-)

Don't know if this would work or not, but what about cutting small sections of twine and unravelling it to make your hay? If it works, it would be really cheap.

Don

Gotta go with the paint brush bristles on this one.

For the haystacks, get some cheap air-dry clay and rough out the mound (probably as a coating over foam or some other armature). attach your base layer of "hay" while the clay is wet and then build out ounce it's dry. After you've got the shape you want, do successive washes of the hay using a medium brown and then drybrush on the lighter yellows and tans, maybe even green if the hay is to be faily fresh. Don't forget to have some hay laying around the stack.

For the bales, I'd use the same basic technique. Start with a hay bale sixed block of clay and, while wet lay hay around the lateral sides and top and bottom. cut a bunch of short stubs and attach them at the end pieces. Once dry, flesh it out and paint. Then add wire around the outside to hold it all together.

Thnx Guys, i was actually gonna use that clay idea myself, as i have some brand spanking new das here and a piantbrush, so i had already thought of that, but seings so many of you also had the same idea, it must be a good one!!!

One more thing you could try. Try this banded or just leaving it in a pile. Use the woodland scenics Field Grass. Get the yellowish one and use that. Cut it small enough and it looks like hay.

Lestweforget, The paint brush idea would give you the best option for simulating hay, I spent many years with horses and hay is something I am rather familier with. Find cheap white china brushes, their course bristles have the appearence and basic coloring of dried grass ie Hay
http://www.siekobrush.com/bristles.html#china-bristles
this link will give you an idea of what the bristles are like.

Thnx, yeah i asked dad to get me one from the hardware shop, cheers

Great idea! Put some photos here!

you could also use a domed top of a can of deodorant and work the paint brush bristles round that least it'll give you a nice shape to work from

good idea, but i might go with a das "dome" as i need to have a dinted in part for a german to be sitting on the bail, i might just go with apiel of hay, cheers

Hemp rope is what I have used, if hemp rope isn't available, jute or anyother NATURAL fiber rope will work well. Unravel the rope, soak it in water mixed with the desired color overnight tie the two lose ends of the unraveled rope together and let it hang dry with a weight tied to the one end to straighten it out a bit. I stressed natural fiber as it will dye the man made stuff won't. I hope this will solve your problem. I have done this before with good results.