Large Scale Central

Where to find G scale cattle

General Discussion
#21

Just wondering if any of you out there have used a static grass applicator, or know what I’m talking about. Modelers of other scales use this method of applying grass, flowers, brush, tree foliage, to the layout, or tree structures through a process of static electricity. I won’t go into the process here, but you can find out all about it on YouTube. Thinking way out of the box here, but you could take rough finished cattle and put hair on the animals through this process, it would cover up the basic say, PlayMobil animals with a process like they use on trees, etc. You can purchase the fiber material and dust it on with the static applicator, it works great and would bring like to whatever you use it on. I will see if I can find a YouTube video on this. Here is a short video I found on YouTube, there are many on this topic, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding what will help you. Static Grass is sold by many, Scenery Express is just one place that sells the stuff, it comes in many colors and different lengths, I would think for cattle you would want the shortest you can get. You can purchase a static grass applicator, or do like it did and make my own for around $25.00, there are videos on this on YouTube to. Only problem I see is leaving your cattle outside in the element, the process may not weather well, but for putting inside cattle cars, or taking them in when finished running your trains I see no problem. I think I will try this process on some of the lessor detailed cattle, since I have used this process on my HOn3 layout with great success, I see no problem why it wouldn’t work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEgNkcE4fKo

trainman

#22

Unless they are Highland cattle from Scotland, I would think that most cows would have a fairly smooth coat. At least the breeds I was up close to were that way. Just me, but I sense that you are taking on a lot of work for very little payback.

Just my $0.02, David Meashey

#23

Dave Meashey said:

Unless they are Highland cattle from Scotland, I would think that most cows would have a fairly smooth coat. At least the breeds I was up close to were that way. Just me, but I sense that you are taking on a lot of work for very little payback.

Just my $0.02, David Meashey

If you have ever worked with a static grass applicator and watched the videos you will see that the grass after applied can be comb to lay down, I see this as a minor thing. I myself as a modeler see this taking about 4-5 minutes per animal at the most. Since we all model at a level that we like and feel comfortable with this will only apply to those who it would appeal to. Just maybe the hair standing up would be correct if the cattle knew where they were headed for.

trainman

#24

John, this thread keeps reminding me of the only thing I bought at the ECLSTS this year – the one that was closed down the day it opened, due to covid. Vendors were packing up, and I didn’t need much anyway. But I got me a 1 gallon bag of used cows for forty bucks. I thought, what the heck, I need at least some tiny bit of retail therapy out of this thing; so I bought them.

When I got home, my wife asked me what I got, and I said a bag of cows. She thought I was trying to make a weird joke. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cry.gif)(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Happy hunting John, and in case no one’s mentioned it, Michael’s and Hobby Lobby and Walmart have craft areas that often carry near-scale critters.

#25

Cliff Jennings said:

John, this thread keeps reminding me of the only thing I bought at the ECLSTS this year – the one that was closed down the day it opened, due to covid. Vendors were packing up, and I didn’t need much anyway. But I got me a 1 gallon bag of used cows for forty bucks. I thought, what the heck, I need at least some tiny bit of retail therapy out of this thing; so I bought them.

When I got home, my wife asked me what I got, and I said a bag of cows. She thought I was trying to make a weird joke. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cry.gif)(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Happy hunting John, and in case no one’s mentioned it, Michael’s and Hobby Lobby and Walmart have craft areas that often carry near-scale critters.

Now you need something to carry them in…(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)

Perhaps something like this?

#26

Cliff;

Don’t know why my mind made this jump, but when you noted that you purchased a gallon bag of used cows, it made me remember how John J (aka JJ) used to say “Sacred Bovine!” instead of “Holy Cow!” I really miss some of the old gang. Hope they are still doing large scale.

Best, David Meashey

#27

Cliffy said: this thread keeps reminding me of the only thing I bought at the ECLSTS this year…

Hmm some semantics here, as I recall when I got back from my trip, I owed Cliffy a pike of dough for things I admittedly asked him to get…but what are friends for?? (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Jerry

#28

Jerry Bohlander said:

Cliffy said: this thread keeps reminding me of the only thing I bought at the ECLSTS this year…

Hmm some semantics here, as I recall when I got back from my trip, I owed Cliffy a pike of dough for things I admittedly asked him to get…but what are friends for?? (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Jerry

Jer’s correct; I bought a huge haul of stuff for him. And a little bag of cows for me.

#29

Dave Meashey said:

Cliff;

Don’t know why my mind made this jump, but when you noted that you purchased a gallon bag of used cows, it made me remember how John J (aka JJ) used to say “Sacred Bovine!” instead of “Holy Cow!” I really miss some of the old gang. Hope they are still doing large scale.

Best, David Meashey

“Used cows?”

And here I thought that would be difficult to imagine!

#30

When I get to my outdoor layout, it will have a slaughterhouse with a siding, an unloading chute, and holding pens. My family’s business was a USDA inspected and custom kill slaughterhouse. To animate the scene I will have a LGB stock car with sound and plan to build a worker with a moving sorting gate that will push a cow up and the alley. Of course, the cow will move back and forth but with the right design and movement should still look pretty good.

there will also be a siding along another side of the building where refrigerated car will be getting unloaded/loaded with hind and fore quarters of beef. I hop to 3d print those and have them hanging on a rail just outside the car and building. The building pictured will be our meat plant. The peaked side to the right of the dock will be the slaughterhouse and the holding pens with the chute coming in from the back. The left side will be the cutting/processing area and a siding will run partially along the front center dock. This is where a overhead railing with the swinging beef will be, appearing to being loaded into the refrigerator car.

#31

Ted Brito said:

When I get to my outdoor layout, it will have a slaughterhouse with a siding, an unloading chute, and holding pens. My family’s business was a USDA inspected and custom kill slaughterhouse. To animate the scene I will have a LGB stock car with sound and plan to build a worker with a moving sorting gate that will push a cow up and the alley. Of course, the cow will move back and forth but with the right design and movement should still look pretty good.

there will also be a siding along another side of the building where refrigerated car will be getting unloaded/loaded with hind and fore quarters of beef. I hop to 3d print those and have them hanging on a rail just outside the car and building. The building pictured will be our meat plant. The peaked side to the right of the dock will be the slaughterhouse and the holding pens with the chute coming in from the back. The left side will be the cutting/processing area and a siding will run partially along the front center dock. This is where a overhead railing with the swinging beef will be, appearing to being loaded into the refrigerator car.

I’m thinking along those same lines as you, I live in Ft. Worth, Texas as you may know, or not know, Ft. Worth had the second largest stockyard in the U.S. for some 100 plus years. It is now a popular tourist attraction for the area. Ft. Worth was located on the Chisholm Trail which back in the day was the main route to heard the cattle to Kansas City to the largest stockyard in the U.S. Ft. Worth was at that time serviced by 8 major railroads and the stock yards were built there because of the access of rail, plus it was on the Chisholm Trails which was a major cattle drive trail to Kansas City. It took up an enormous area in N. Ft. Worth and operated for right at 100 years and made Ft. Worth probably what is is today, they say that the money that went through the stockyard exchange was by far something to behold. The number of cattle cars that came in daily where by the 100’s, plus Swift and Armor built large processing plants on the property and the numbers of reefers were in operation full time serving these two plants. My railway is called the Ft. Worth and South-Western and it a belt railway that served the stockyards as well as other Ft. Worth industries, Ft. Worth did actually have a belt railway that did service the stockyard called the Ft. Worth Belt Railway, but I had already lettered my railroad before I decided to go this way, so I will not be re-lettering all my railroad engines and cars. This is where Ft. Worth gets in nickname, “Cowtown” If you like the stockyard business you can watch several videos on YouTube about the Ft. Worth Stockyards.

trainman

#32

John Lenheiser said:

…It is now a popular tourist attraction for the area…

Geez, I hope they’re wearing nose plugs.

#33

Ted Brito said:… getting unloaded/loaded with hind and fore quarters of beef. I hop to 3d print those and have them hanging on a rail just outside the car and building. …

please!! whenever you find slaughtered beef as model or 3D file, anounce it loud and clearly here in the forum.

for years now, i again and again try to model this with putty, the green stuff or other materials.

as i have been on the other end of that business, ranching, pushing about 300 head over my loading dock (trucks, not trains) each year for two and a half decades, i just have to have a cattle yard and a slaughterhouse on my layout.

#34

John Passaro said:

John Lenheiser said:

…It is now a popular tourist attraction for the area…

Geez, I hope they’re wearing nose plugs.

Not as bad as you think it is, https://www.fortworthstockyards.org/

#35

If you really want a truly memorable scent, check out a pig farm: it’s ALMOST enough to swear off bacon (but nothing would ever be THAT bad. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif))

#36

Bruce Chandler said:

If you really want a truly memorable scent, check out a pig farm: it’s ALMOST enough to swear off bacon (but nothing would ever be THAT bad. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif))

Sugar beet processing facility is probably one of the worst smells, I used to drive by a plant on a regular basis and its not a smell that you can even describe but sitting here I remember it very well, even though it has been gone a long time. A girl I was dating in mid 70’s was determined to hold her breath for the mile or so along the highway and actually passed out and crashed her car, although alcohol may have been a factor also that night. she was ok,.

In smell lists I would go Sugar beet, Chicken, pigs, a winery… cows are way down on the list from there.

#37

My daughter had a tournament in Fort Morgan (Colorado) held a few blocks from the co-op. It isn’t just the smell of sugar beet processing that’s so obnoxious, which you would think might be a sweet smell…no, no, no…but it’s also the dust, the fine particulates that are a byproduct of processing and which fill the air.

They have a preserved locomotive out there used by the original Western Sugar plant. I’ll see if I can find the pictures I took.

There wasn’t much else to do in Fort Morgan during the breaks, except we explored the town and at some point started counting churches. You wouldn’t believe it. No fewer than twenty-five; you heard me correctly, if I remember right we found more than twenty-five, for a town of only 11,000 people. ONE Catholic church, ZERO synagogues, the rest protestant of one demonination or another.

#38

cattle?

the question should not be “where?”, but “when?”.

the offers for suitable cattle come and go.

my oldest cows are from 1955 (the plastic still is not brittle)

in the pic are my latest purchases.

from left to right:

a cebu bull, chinese copy of a bull from a former Brazilian toy maker

Britains cow from the farm series

chinese made spanish bull, (in wrong color) never have seen this model before

three longhorns. chinese reprints of the former Marx toys (just two molds)

the figure for comparison is a Britains 1:32

#39

One more thing to add to the list of suggestions. One could peruse the various 3D library sites (Grabcad, Turbosquid, 3DContentcentral, etc.) and look for cows / steer / bulls / etc. Some cost money, some are free, like this cow from Grabcad.

Then get it converted to STL format and to the right scale, and upload to one of the printing companies (Shapeways, 3dHubs, Jawstech…) for printing a bunch.

Or… make silicone molds of what ya got, and cast them in resin.

Just have to comment that we’re really milking this thread, aren’t we?

(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

#40

Cliff Jennings said:
…

Or… make silicone molds of what ya got, and cast them in resin.

…

you do realize, that for a cow one has to make a two-part, or better a three-part mold?