by Jason Hasert

Classic 1970's Fall Tillage

       The National Farm Toy Show display contest is the biggest event for model farm builders of the year.   Customizers work all year long to create the perfect tractors, implements, and farms for the big event.   This year five ToyTractorShow.com members and Toy Tractor Times readers entered the contest.  "Down on the Model Farm" is proud to bring you their displays. 

Tim Grube

        Tim Grube of Wisconsin built a 1/64 seed corn farm. This was a great display idea.  Tim came up with the idea this past July which means he had to work hard to make the display in time for the National.  Tim and his friend John Schomburg toward a seed corn farm to learn more about seed corn.  Tim and John took lots of notes on the tour and developed ideas for a 1/64 display. Tim built a model seed corn farm named Sawyer Seed Farms based in a mythical town called Eberle, Wi in hornor of fellow farm display builder Bill Eberle. 

      Tim's display place 2nd out of 14 displays and lost the top honor by two points.  This display deserves top accolades because its attention detail and its perspective.  The 4x8 display is built on an angle as you can see above. The seed corn farm on the display has a big work shop, machine shed, dryer barn to store the seed corn, multiple grain bins and a ware house.  The main office by the road even has a  Bush/Cheney 04' for President yard sign. No detail was over looked. 

        Equipment was well thought out on Sawyer seed farms. The farm runs three New Idea Corn pickers. They are silver 1988 models. Because seed corn must be harvested in a short time a custom crew is also in the field.  Tim purchased two Pixall Big Jack pickers from Adam Suntken to create the harvest crew. Tim created custom 10 row John Deere 1293 corn heads for the Pixall's.  The 10 row configuration is used because of the uneven amount of rows harvested. The male rows are chopped well before the crop drys down. This is why you see wide gaps in the rows pictured above. The custom crew was rounded out with a Byron 8400 picker made by C&D Models in 1999. This model was on loan from my collection. 

     Not only did Tim have his equipment thought out but he thought of all the details. Here we see one of the Uni's in the shop. The picker is covered in corn dust, the shop has tools scattered around and the floor even has tire marks.  The tire marks are an A+ detail not used on many displays. It might be an idea you might consider on your display. 

       John Schomburg is well known for his attention to detail on custom tractors.  John loaned Tim some special tractors. John made an IH 1486 with the 1981 black stripe, row crop duals and fwa.  As you can see it has other details.  The other model John added to was a White 195 Work Horse.  Both of these tractors are not common and offer a great deal to the display as dump cart haulers. 

       Tractors and implements do not stay clean in the field.  Here is another realistic idea you might try. Tim and John dusted the 1/64 models to look like they are working hard in the field.  For example here is a CAT MT765 with a New Holland 730 ripper covered in dirt, dust and chaff. 

         On a big display you want to put all the equipment in the field. Fight the temptation. Your display will look more realistic with only a few pieces in action.  Tim had many items of interest stored in his machine shed. A big 16 row John Deere corn planter and special seed corn Kinze planters were among some nice pieces not out on the farm.  having these items tucked away added allot of detail to the display. 

Jason Jeffers

e-mail: jjeffers@ctctel.com

    Jason Jeffers had another great display.  Jason strayed away from id-west farming to the West coast for his model farm.   Jason used pictures from a Washington wheat farmer to create the mans hill side farm.  Below is a picture of the real farm.  This display uses a great model principle.  Build from real life scenes.  Not all farms are mega sized. The smaller farm stead can offer many possibilities. 

           Jason talked the farmer and created his equipment line up which included a Steiger CP-1400, Case International 9250, CaseIH 8950 with loader, Ford 9030, CaseIH 2188 and IH 1470 combines.  Special equipment was also built by Jason to create the farm.  You can read more about Jason's fine work in this months Toy Tractor Times Collectors Workmanship column. 

         The best part of Jason's display was the Washington hill side.  Jason used baler twine to create the wheat field. It looks quite realistic. The slope is created with layers of Styrofoam.  The hillside combines were built by Jason as well.  They are impressive models. You really get a feel for hillside harvesting looking at these models.  Can you imagine driving one of these combines.  Looking up and only seeing a slope of wheat and sky and looking down out your right hand window, way down to the bottom of the slope.  Great job Jason. 

Adam Suntken

e-mail: adamsunt@comm1net.net

        Adam is a well known displayer.  In 2002 Adam took second place at the National for his night time harvest display.  The night farm scene was a great model farm and really showed what a farm looks like during the harvest crunch when everything runs 24/7.  This year Adam created a large modern beef feed lot.  Adam shares the details of his 2003 display below: 

AGS Farms Inc. Family Owned-Operated

     2000 acres consisting of 1000 acres of soybeans, 900 acres of corn and 100 acres of alfalfa.

     Approximately 400 head of beef cattle are finished annually with the operation raising all of their own feed except for protein supplement.

      They also operate a small brood mare business which offers boarding, training and breeding services.   A 4 horse slant load trailer is parked next to the horse stables.

      In the hay field you can see self-propelled windrower cutting hay.

        The operation raises all of its own hay for the cattle operation, baling it in both large square and round bales as well as cutting some for haylage. 

      A custom operator has arrived with a tub grinder to help grind hay.  All of the hay is stored in a hoop building to help keep in good condition.  In front of the hoop building is a wheel loader dumping ground hay into a single screw vertical mixer.

       Cattle are being loaded out of a scratch built working corral complete with squeeze chute.  One load is headed down the drive as the other completes loading.   Parked on the back side of the 400 head feedlot is an arsenal of manure spreaders.  Hooked to a detailed 8400 is a Knight 8040 slinger spreader.  Also in the background is both 6000 and 8500 Balzer spreaders to pump out the manure settling lagoon.

       The grain system consists of five 30000-bushel bins.  The two not connected to the leg system are used for soybean storage and are filled with an auger.  The other 3 are used for corn storage.  A wet holding bin for corn is also filled by the same auger.  Wet corn from the holding bin is augered into a stacked Sukup dryer.  After drying it is moved to the storage bins by a leg and horizontal augers.  Corn for feed is moved to a bulk bin for the roller mill by an auger on the back side of the feed shed.  Three of bins are equipped with vertical unload augers.  Four 20x50 Harvestore silos holding 375 tons of silage each are on the opposite side of the feed shed.  All feed ingredients except ground hay are put into the feed mixer from one conveyor in the feed shed.

      In the machine shed a multitude of large equipment is housed.  A new JD DB series 24 row planter is parked in the corner.  Along with a JD 48ft field cultivator, a Killbros grain cart, two large Parker wagons and a Mack tri-axle grain truck with a 22ft grain box.  In the shop is parked a JD 4960 getting routine service work and a custom made Tiger IV Stieger and a 9 shank Earthmaster being readied for fall tillage work.  Next to the shed is a custom made New Holland FX chopper, a scratch built JD square baler and a resin cast 42 ft grain trailer hooked to a DCP International tractor.  

       Landscaping surrounds the front side of the house.  A large wooden deck spans the entire back side.  The backyard is full of both evergreen and deciduous trees.  Parked next to the retaining wall in front is a JD riding lawn mower.

John Sampson

e-mail: toyfarmer2@man.com

         Jon has displayed at the national for a number of years.  Jon likes to build farms using classic equipment.  This year he created a feed lot using vintage AGCO equipment from Allis-Chalmers, Massey-Ferguson,  Glenco, White and New Idea. 

        Jon built a few very nice New Idea Uni-Harvesters for his feed lot farm.  Here we see a Uni shelling corn. This corn field even has a grass buffer strip across the middle to help fight erosion.    

        Allis-Chalmers is the main tractor brand on Jon's display. Here is a nice AC 4W-220 with a custom Glenco mulch-chisel . 

      One of the best details on Jon's display farm was a huge silage bunker. The bunker is built right into the ground.  It is dug into a model hill and even has a cement foundation. 

        Here is a great view from Jon's silo.  Notice the farm is loading ground corn instead of green silage.  The silo connected to a mill and feed house.  Notice the roof even has shingles. 

        Classic detail was not over looked by Jon.  In the days before before 250 + bu combines with 100 bu bin extensions a big combine could hold 100 bu.  Often to eek out a few more bushels of storage a farmer would build a wooden box to fit the top of the bin. Jon created the home made bin extension to fit an MF 510 for his display.  

Jason Rhoads

e-mail: jason@modeltractors.com

website: http://www.modeltractors.com

         Jason Rhoads was our only member to enter a 1/16 display.  Jason is best known as T&J Tractors.  Here is a description in Jason's own words of his National Display:  

        I had about 1500 hours into the display and all the scratch built tractors. I tried to build tractors which I hadn't seen in 1/16th scale before. Some have been done in 1/16th scale, but I wanted to build high detail versions of them. My overall display wasn't super impressive. My main objective for attending the show was to get some exposure for myself and my models. However,  I didn't want to just take 10 tractors to the show, and sit them on a bare table, so I put a little work into making a modest dealership display to go with the tractors. Probably one of the best parts of the show for us, was being able to finally put names to faces. We met so many customers who have bought models from us in the past, as well as lots of other builders and collectors who we have known online for a few years, but never met in person. The part that sticks out most in my mind, is watching the real young toy farmers as they checked out all the displays in the room. It was funny watching their mouth drop open, as they gazed over all the displays,... pointing out different details and objects.

         Jason's Case 6wd looks very odd but it was a tractor developed by Case in the late 1970's.  This tractor never made it beyond the drawing board.  Case saw the 4wd market growing in the late 1970's with the 760 hp Big Bud 16V-747, 650 hp Steiger ST-650 Panther Twin and 600 hp 8 wheel-drive Big Roy 1080.  Case was best known for its crab steer ridged frame 4wds.  Case developed a 600 hp 6wd that not only had crab steer but articulated in front of and behind the cab. This idea never developed due to the crunch of the 1980's farm market. When Jason saw concept tractor at http://www.toytractorshow.com/Case6wd.htm two years ago he knew he had to build it. He did a super job. 

            Jason likes 4wds.  Using his talents in steel building Jason has built several Wagners.  The FWD Wagner 4wds are the first successful articulated tractors on the market dating back to the late 1950's. Jason has highlighted these tractors important part of 4wd history in 1/16 scale. 

           Jason has also enjoyed making International and Versatile 4wds. Below are two IH and two Versatiles built by Jason. 

        It takes many hours of work to create a display.  It takes even more time and effort to prepare a display for the National.  So many great ideas and efforts come together for visitors of the National to view.  Thank you to the TTS members who take the time to build these great model farms and share them at the National.   If you are interested in displaying at the National the rules are as follows: