New dioramas depict stubble grubbing, baling hay and fertiliser spreading. Old rusted out sheds alongside modern slatted units are among some of the scenes on display within these pages. A farmyard includes old worn wheels, rusted galvanised sheets, broken pallets and bale wrapping plastic which gives that realistic look. At the bottom of this page are some helpful 'do-it-yourself' tips along with the material and some brands names which I have used to create the dioramas
A sowing diorama featuring a Massey Ferguson 6190 conversion. This picture gallery can be viewed on agrimods.com
Soil preparation Irish style with a New Holland 8560 power harrowing along with a Ford 7810
Created by Paul Moynan with input from Michael Fingleton this diorama was featured at the Punchestown farm machinery show. It attracted much attention on the Irish Farmers Journal stand as this working farm and field diorama and featured your typical Irish farmyard with hay sheds old outhouses along with scratch built Irish machinery set within realistic surroundings
A weathered UH Ford 7810 spreading fertiliser
A close up look at the slatted unit and farmyard
Ploughing with a John Deere 7810 conversion and UH Kuhn plough ground preparation provided by a Weise Fendt 824 and UH carrier
Grubbing stubbles Irish style. This diorama features a weathered Wiking John Deere.
Hay baling with a Renault Celtis conversion.
Mowing silage with a Massey Ferguson 6840 conversion
A modified Ertl/Britains John Deere 6650 Harvestor with rear steering axle
Claas Tucano header reduced to a more realistic Irish width!
A selection of new images depicting a maize diorama
Round bales some of which have been exposed to the winter weather! are housed in this old style farm building
Pictures of a shed in the corner of a field with round bales and sctrach built timber floored straw trailer inside
Another old farmhouse used as a machinery shed with detailing around the side of the building
Pictures from small area around the farmyard
An upclose look at weathering machinery
STUBBLE - The Stubble effect is Coil well matting with black PVC backing. The grubbed ground is achieved by siving dried clay and mixing with olive oil adding some shavings from the coil mat for the stubble. Some green flock has been sprinkled on the mat to create a more realistic effect of stubble ground. The grubbed soil effect is around 5mm in depth. The olive oil gives the clay wet look. The Mat is glued to a 12mm MDF board and two MDF boards have been placed side by side to create a bigger diorama.

HARVEST - Well matting creates the harvest diorama and has been painted with straw-like colour emlusion paint. Old carpet is used for the stubble while Sisal rope cut into small lengths creates the straw. Sawdust creates the grain effect in the trailer

MAIZE - The stubble is Sisal rope which has been loosely wrapped around 20mm x 10mm timber strips. Each strip is firstly painted brown. When dry paint with PVA glue and sprinkle dry clay dust over each strip. Then wrap the rope around on the strips and joint it to a blank strip with nails and PVA glue. Repeating the process will build up rows of stubble. Then cut in between the rope on each strip. The Sisal rope stubble is flexible for the models to drive over it. Fill in between the rows with dry clay dust, some Heki green flor and small cuttings of sisal rope to give it that realistic effect. The Maize itself is an artificial fish tank plant call Jungle Plant (Exo-Terra Plastic Jungle Plant by Croton Medium) and which has been sprayed a light brown to tone down the bright green colour. It can be purchased in some large pet shops or online.  

SILAGE GRASS - The cut grass effect is hanging basket lining. Mowed grass is Sisal Moss cut up into small pieces. The grass from the shute is Sisal Moss stuck to double sided tape. Static grass and floc have been sprinkled on the mowers for added effect. The grass is brown well matting which has been sprayed with green paint. You maybe lucky to purchase it in green but it are mostly available in brown. All these items are available in garden stores, like Woddies, B&Q and Homebase.
BALING HAY - Moss sisal rope is used for grass swarths. Round bales is rolled up green moss basket liner with blue tread used for twine

SHED LIGHTING - Beads of grain and rice bulbs are used for the shed lighting. Light weight speaker wire is used to connect the bulbs back to an on/off switch this in turn is connected to a Hornby train AC adapter controller. Turning up or down the controller volume will brighten or dim the lights. Each on and off switch controls the lighting in each of the sheds. Note that having the lights bright all the time will blow the bulbs quicker.

SHEDS - my sheds are hand built. Materials used include cardboard, 5mm foam board, corrugated sheeting with the backing removed (Clairefontaine), balsa wood beams and plastic structure. Black emulsion paint and casting powder (plaster-of-paris) is mixed together into a sticky paste which is then plastered onto the walls to giving it an old rough look. A different shade of grey is lightly painted over parts of the wall to give it depth and blended in using a damp sponge. The weathered look is achieved by gently rubbing a mixture of browns, black and or green dry pastels into parts of the wall.
The galvanised sheet are cut out of a large 70cm x 50cm sheet (Clairefontaine), with the backing removed to expose corrugate on both sides and each side is firstly painted using an airbrush and then cut into sheets (approx 7cm x 4cm). When fixed to the blasa wood beams of the shed the rust effect is applied by sprinkling orange and brown dry pastels onto the roof which is then gently rubbed in. To seal everything a fine coat of clear satin lacquer is airbrushed on. As the sheets dry they will bend and curling adding to the old effect. Grass growing in the gutters is a bunch of grass hairs (Woodland Scenics) dunked in PVA glue and placed into the gutter. When dry the hairs are cut to the required length also some Heki flor is sprinkled into gutters. The final touch is when the sheds are light up at night!

STONE YARD - The stone yard is achieved by applying PVA wood glue to the uneven MDF base and adding HO ballast stone chippings (Javis). I have use two different courses and also larger stone chippings, to finish sprinkle some flor (Heki), static grass (Noch) and dry clay dust

TREES - Fir trees are by Noch ranging from 8mm to 16mm high while the the Beech and Birch trees (18-20mm) (Beech tree ref no. 1912). They are by Heki, the Artline range which are more detailed
All these materials can be found in any good model train and or art/hobby shops. Tuffs of grass are dotted around the yard which is achieved using Heki, Wildgrass matting and realistic wildgrass

ROUND BALES - To achieve straw effects on the Round bale firstly cut up sisal rope into small lengths from 3-10mm. apply PVA glue to the sides of the round bale place the cut sisal rope over it, use a piece of cardboard sheet to press down firmly on it and repeat the process. Allow to dry. To go around the bale start off by the placing sisal cuttings on some cling film rolling the bale along using the cling film to stop glue getting on your hands. Finally wrap some sowing thread around the bale and allow dry. To weather the bale I used a mixture of Dulux brown and black emulsion paint which I airbrush on

GRASS TUFFS - This effect uses the Heki realistic wildgrass (Product no. 1841) and has been used on the yards and field laneways. Peal away some of the pasture type realistic wildgrass from the white paper backing and tare way a required size. Place some PVA glue on the base board and place the grass tuff on using a top of a paintbrush or tweezers to press into position. The tweezers with help not to breakdown the standing grass. Then sprinkle some clay dust around the are along with some small ballast and using a soft makeup brush to blend together. This is just one of many simple techniques you could use

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