I'm about to commence work on a small diorama (1/48th or thereabouts) and I need to know what everyone thinks the best way to make hay bales is ? I'm thinking of the rectangular wire-bound variety.

My initial thought was to bundle up some real straw, but its simply too chunky for this. I also tried scoring a small block of balsa and then fitting it with the wire wrap, but it wasn't good enough.

My next attempt will be to use lichen and bale it up. Problem is, I need a LOT of bales (around 60 I would estimate) plus a margin for error.

Any ideas ?

Steve.

at 1/48 scale I would think that not much detail would accually show. This is just an idea but cut balsa wood blocks to the right size, soak then until they ar real wet then scuff course sandpaper over them to raise the grain of the timber. Let thougherly dry then bind them with thin copper or brass wire(it will not matter if the wire crushes the edges because it does anyway on real bales in most cases). Paint basic color and drybrush to highlight.

hope this helps

How about using hemp rope? You could unravel it and then glue it into whatever position you needed it.

I was thinking something like this: take a box of either balsa or plasticard and then wrap that in model railroad tall grass, gluing the grass lengthwise on the box; then take thin copper wire or string and tie the box.
Kyle

How about a combination of Roo's and phoenix-1 suggestion, soak the wood, get it nice and soft, glue the long woodland grass length wise, and then bind it tightly with fine wire?
I think the end grain would work to your advantage, especially in a 1/48.

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I have made 1/35 haybails with unravelled twine. I also find that combing the fibers with a "slicker" brush (an animal grooming brush) not only gets rid of the 'clumpyness' but also straightens out the fibers making them easier to work with. I would make a jig the shape of the bales you want, sort of like a long squared trough, soak the twine in water, brush the fibers, overfill the jig with taught fibers, allow to fully dry in the jig, add the wire bundling while still in the jig, then cut apart the bales.
good luck-Glennjavascript:PasteSmiley(':-H')

Take cut squares of sponge foam (not styrofoam- the squishy kind of foam), wet with glue or paint and sprinkle static grass - soak it so it doenst stick up like static grass should. Bind with your string or wire and if the foam square is not solid from the glue or paint, it may even bend in a bit when you wrap it..
Never tried this- just an idea,, Good luck

I made some out of Celluclay. use your hands to get the rectangular, or whatever, shape you want. Use the back of your cutting blade to make slight suggestions of lines, or use a piece of thread applied over and over to the clay on the four long sides.
Then you can imprint the "wire" with the edge of your blade. The ends get textured with an old toothbrush. Fast and easy and you can knock out as many as you want.
For a haystack, I cut two inch long pieces of thread from three different colors in the straw range. I did it fast by winding them around my fingers, before I made the cuts on each end. I glued them into a pile and washed them a bit. The three slightly different colors gave the pile some realistic differentiation without being eye-grabbing.

Sealhead

Some interesting ideas there - I'll certainly give some of them a try. Everything else in the diorama I can create (barrels, etc) and I didn't want the haybales to be sub-standard.

Thanks all - I'll post up WIP pics of the whole scene as I go, so you'll be able to see the results of the haybales.

Cheers!