Basically I am a single mom who likes hands on learning for a 2 year old, and I'm not satisfied with buying her a barn for her schliech animals- i want her to have a farm diorama.
Ive never thought of doing this before, but I'm really excited to do it, and i really want it to be accurate to scale with realistic details, but it has to be made with kid-friendly and hardy items that arent pinned/glued etc to the foundation.

So all I know is I have 8 schliech farm animals, and for a foundation i have a 3'L x 1'W tray that has a 3" side. I'll try to attach images.

First things first- What scale are schleich farm animals in? I'm finding 1:20-1:24, but isn't that a big difference?
I emailed schliech but haven't heard back yet.

Is there ANY brand of animals that follows a single scale for all of their animals?

Any advice would be helpful! Im not even sure what the next steps are!


How do i post my pictures where you can see them on this post?

Wow. I just realized this is an all military site. Maybe I'm not ready to make a model after all

military or civic changes little, the techniques and materials are exactly the same, for the base you can use the DAS, polyfille mixed with acrylic paint or clay, you could go see in a shop for model trains you could find them both materials and accessories, are collectors of this kind of animals and therefore there will be certain dedicated forums where they can help you better, more because the scale of these animals are a bit odd in comparison to the scale in our hobby

have a look here...

http://www.laughinggiraffe.com/showthread.php?t=5374

http://www.laughinggiraffe.com/showthread.php?t=5228

looks like a forum animal-orietated...

thank you so much for even caring to reply! I'm looking for forums geared towards animals or simpler things now!

no worries mate! ... asking is a right, answering is courtesy ...

Anyway I also have a boy of 2 years and a half and he also has some Schleich animal and in fact I have never had a good look but have different scales..the pug looks a giant compare to the elefant...

While the site is very heavy towards military it's not the only subject allowed. There is another just a few posts down.

Hard to say the scale, regular cows are about 62" high and miniature cows are about 32"-48". Not up on the bovine species but the height of the rooster in some pics gave me pause that they might not all be a standard scale. Micheals or AC Moore should generic animals, not sure if the scale works.

Personally I wouldn't worry about scale farm house because the dexterity isn't quite there yet but go for ease of use. Scale "play" can be added later when they grow in to there bodies. Their imagination can over come the scale difference. Additionally given the heavy use, I would make the farm out of wood as it can have better strength. I would make the base out construction paper so the scene can be changed often.

My dad built a large 2 story doll house (5' long x 4' high x 1' deep) for my daughter years ago, when she was done with the dolls it converted in to a book shelves/storage area.

Best of luck on your project and being a single parent (BTDT ain't a easy road).

Hello and welcome to the site.

I'll post more soon but I found this site from England that states that their calculations show the Schliech farm critters are 1/24:

http://www.toyfarmers.co.uk/blog/what-scale-are-schleich-farm-animals/

Chekc also here...

https://minizoosite.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/comparing-brands-of-model-horses/

Hi and welcome to the site.

We'll be happy to give you all the help you need in building this diorama. All you have to do is ask.

Here's a link on how to post pics on this site.

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=FAQ&file=index&myfaq=yes&id_cat=9&categories=How+do+I+add+images+to+the+forums%3F&parent_id=1


Take care, good luck and have fun.

You know, I'd recommend a trip to your local Hobby Lobby or Michael's craft stores and see what they have on hand for diorama building. There's an entire section in each of those stores for animals, and they deal in Woodland Scenics materials for dioramas. They have a pretty good miniature and dollhouse furniture section as well. I'd check them out if you haven't already.
VR, Russ

Hi Syn,

I posted this at RailRoad Modeling:

Hi All,

I am exploring how to explain adding photos to our forum posts easily.

This image is in my gallery as a small thumbnail. I clicked on it and it enlarged.

First, I copied the URL directly from Linked Thumbnail and pasted it and it made this small thumbnail:


Second, to the right of that link box is an icon that looks like a picture frame with a paperclip. Click it and it brings up two URLs:

1. HTML code

2. Direct link

If you copy the URL directly out of HTML code it looks like this:

Direct link looks like this (italics added): /data/500/OKC_RR_Museum_2_8_0_14_1000x708_.jpg

I don't know why it does not show the entire URL string: https://gallery.kitmaker.net/data/500/OKC_RR_Museum_2_8_0_14_1000x708_.jpg

Regardless, it does not have the string ends '[img ]' and '[/img]' (do not have any space between the brackets and 'img'), thus it will only display as a line of code. Bracketing that code with '[img ]' and '[/img]' looks like this:

A slightly quicker way is simply to right-click the full-size image and Copy Image Location. That makes a hot link of the proceeding URL https://gallery.kitmaker.net/data/500/OKC_RR_Museum_2_8_0_14_1000x708_.jpg. You just have to click the '[img]' button at far right below the post page text box, and insert the URL string.

Hope this helps.

Hi Syn,

1/24 is part of the range of model railroading known as G Gauge. There is a vast knowledge base for G ranging in cost from pennies to more than most want to spend. Here is a site for modeling on a budget; I was amazed at the idea of modeling a barn by reworking a birdhouse!

https://familygardentrains.com/primer/budget.htm#scrounge



I suggest using foam core poster board. It is easy to cut and light weight and yet rigid. You can score it for the wood exterior, or use balsa wood as the exterior and glue it on. Black construction paper can be cut into strips for shingles, or you can cut segments of aluminum foil for a metal roof.

Or you can use a sturdy cardboard box for the basic barn and add exterior sheathing and a roof.

There is a site with plans for a barn: http://scalemodelbuildings.com/garden.html#1056

Here is a how-to about scratchbuilding one:
http://blog.modeljunkyard.com/2011/05/22/124-barn-instructions-progress/

Here's a Pintrest site with a lot of modeling ideas: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/28710516346452617

For the grass etc get something like this of ebay or a local shop and use spray glue to secure it to the base

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ARTIFICIAL-GRASS-2ft-x-3ft-60cm-x-90cm-Florist-Greengrocers-Market-Stall/201959301645?_trkparms=ao%3D1%26asc%3D20170912101845%26meid%3D79da9025d32f4fa69a599bc0fe0b1758%26pid%3D100705%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26&_trksid=p2045573.c100705.m4780

I suggest you check YouTube. There are hundreds of excellent ‘how to’ videos on building dioramas on there, covering every aspect.
Good luck

Hi, when my kids were young, they had a lot of these SCHLEICH animals, they are nicely painted and detailed, but all in different scales. When I was young, we had a lot of Farm animals, tractors and buildings from BRITAINS, think they are still available (on EBAY), they were all in 1:32 scale. Meanwhile even the German manufacturer SIKU has farm equipment and animals in 1:32. If you want to make a scale diorama, then you need to go for BRITAINS and SIKU, but I remember that my kids did not care about the scale, they simply love the SCHLEICH stuff - and even put them into LEGO buildings