Down to the Details
By Chris Delva

With picture perfect weather for early November, I was able to pack the truck up and head east to Dyersville with no worries about weather. I guess I did have two worries as I began the 14 hour drive; did I have enough money, and was I going to have enough room to bring home all my finds?

I was extremely honored this year to be asked if I would judge the display contest. After competing in the contest, I always wanted to have the opportunity to judge the contest. I knew judging the contest was going to be a difficult job going in, but the job was extremely difficult since there were so many quality displays competing.

I do not even know where to begin with describing all of the displays I saw over the weekend. I guess the best place to start is with the big stuff and work my way down. Terry Spahr of El Segundo, California built a 1/12th scale replica of the "Star Barn" of Highspire, PA. The original barn was built in 1880 by the architect Daniel Reichert for farm owner John Motter. The barn was built to house Motter's horse and mule herds. Motter had been one of the principal suppliers of horses and mules to the Union Army during the Civil War.

I have always had a great interest in barns, so this model absolutely captivated me. Terry took hundreds of photos and 50 pages of notes describing the original barn before he even began construction of the model. With very few exceptions, the model is a complete replica of the original barn beam for beam. What really grabbed my attention was that the original barn was constructed of Douglas Fir and Terry built the model of Douglas Fir. Terry even used an original board from the barn to construct flooring in the ovaden in the model. There was a cut nail hole in the flooring of the model from where a nail was in the original board. There were so many amazing details that Terry incorporated into this barn that I cannot even begin to give it justice with words.

Wes Anderson of Welcome, Minnesota had a great display of customized 1/16th John Deere tractors and implements. It was a thrill to judge Wes' display, because Wes' winning display from 1985 was on the cover of the first Ertl Replica magazine that I ever received. I could have spent all night talking with Wes about all of the things he had done with his customs to make them as accurate as possible. The amount of time and precision he added to each one was amazing. The thing that Wes pointed out to me that I imagine was missed by most who view Wes' customs is that he takes the time to add the headliner into each cab. This was an amazing little detail that completed his customs. To fully appreciate these customs, you have to have the curator explain them first hand.

The small scale display contest has always been my favorite aspect of the National Farm Toy Show. I could spend all weekend going from classroom to classroom looking at the displays. Every time I look at a particular display I find something I missed before. With the quality of displays this year, there is no doubt that a whole weekend could be spent viewing displays.

Unfortunately, I did not have the luxury to spend all weekend looking at the displays this year. But in the limited time that I had to look at the displays, I did see a few really great detail items. One of the first things that I noticed was the fencing and field gates on J&S's display. I thought they did a great job with replicating barbwire fencing. But the wire gates were what I really liked. Many of the fields in my area are fenced to pasture in the winter, so most of the gates are wire. It was really great to see the gates replicated on a display. I also really liked how J&S had tall grass growing along their fence line. That really enhanced the fence's overall appearance and realism.

There were many aspects of John Schomburg's display that I though were outstanding. There were two things that I felt really added to the displays overall realism. The detail that really completed the display was the taller grass in the ditch along the road. Very rarely do you see a roadside that has short, well manicured grass like most of us model. The taller grass gave a more realistic feel to the road. The one drawback to the product John used was that it has a uniform height. When I asked John about this, he said that the ditch had recently been mowed and that is why the grass was all the same height. The other detail that I really liked on John's display was the pile of rocks in the hedgerow near the entrance of one of his fields. It is really the small details that make you feel like you are "in" the display.

Dave Westbrook of Newton, Iowa has been displaying at the NFTS for many years now. The first year that I set up in Dyersville I was next to Dave. Over the years I have gotten a lot of advice and tips from Dave. This year Dave tackled a project that I have wanted to do on my own display for some time now. In back of one of his sheds, Dave had an old rusted Oliver 70 tractor, mounted corn picker and an AC All Crop combine sitting in the weeds. How common is this scene on family farms? I thought it was a great detail to include and it made his display come to life.

These are just a few of the hundreds of little details that made this years display contest outstanding. It will be interesting to see what next year brings!

Until next month,

Chris