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john holt
Engine Wiper
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 Posted - 11/04/2020 : 8:48:56 PM
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Anybody know where a person can find HO scale cotton bales?
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GULF COAST & WESTERN |
Country: USA
| Posts: 382 |
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 11/04/2020 : 9:39:59 PM
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What era? most modern pictures I find look are the same shape as large round hay bales. Modern rectangular bales appear to be plastic-wrapped with plastic strapping either over or under the wrapping. Older bales appear to be mostly wrapped in burlap, held together by strapping of some sort. More recent photos show steel strapping, but one museum uses what looks like copper?
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6686 |
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desertdrover
Engineer
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Posted - 11/05/2020 : 09:38:33 AM
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Hi John. Member Cliff Powers, MA&G Railroad made his own bales. Bellow is text he stated. And a picture of his bales. Hope this helps!
"I had a real hard time coming up with a way to model cotton bales realistically. A cotton ball was not going to do it. Baled cotton has
that bunchy compressed look that you can’t achieve with a fluffy cotton ball. In the end, I took 3/8 x ½ x 1 inch pieces of balsa wood
which I contoured with a hammer. In other words, I beat down all of the corners and sides to an irregular “lumpy” shape. Next I
coated the block with spray adhesive and tightly wrapped a piece of panty hose around it. Five pieces of black floral wire were used to
create the metal bands. These are twisted and trimmed on the bottom to conceal the seam. The entire bale is then dipped in full
strength brown Rit liquid dye to darken the panty hose and bring out the weave texture of burlap. When dry, I dab white tacky glue
on the ends of the bales and dip them in Testor’s white Simulated Carpeting. This product is used to make floor carpeting in car
models. I stumbled on it quite by accident when I bought some at a GATS show years ago thinking it was weathering powder. I never
threw it away and, after finding it in a box, saw that it had the perfect texture for compressed cotton.
Here is the final product with the prototype photo which served as the inspiration for it. Since the photo was taken in the 1930’s and
my layout is set in 1955, I updated the tractor which I think is plausible."
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Louis
Pacific Northwest Logging in the East Coast
Post count: 5000 posts added to below count.
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Edited by - desertdrover on 11/05/2020 11:17:03 AM |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 16098 |
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desertdrover
Engineer
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Posted - 11/05/2020 : 11:32:41 AM
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Found this article also; In a Model Railroader magazine, June 1982, "Modeling a Cotton Gin" shows how he made his cotton bales. See below.
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Louis
Pacific Northwest Logging in the East Coast
Post count: 5000 posts added to below count.
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Edited by - desertdrover on 11/05/2020 11:33:41 AM |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 16098 |
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john holt
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 11/05/2020 : 8:39:28 PM
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Thanks Louis. My modeling era is around 1952-1953 in Texas. The photos are great. Where I live (in west Texas) there are five or six cotton gins scattered about still in operation. Some harvesting still going on, most was done several weeks ago or so. The only bale dimensions I can find are 55" x 21" x 33", a rectangular style bale. I may try some balsa "sticks" and use some dryer lint, spray painted matte white. The burlap, for me, seems to be the tricky part. The panty hose thing might be the ticket but that material is hard to keep in any shape, being so stretchy.
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GULF COAST & WESTERN |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 382 |
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DanRaitz
Engine Wiper
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DanRaitz
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 11/06/2020 : 10:31:25 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by desertdrover
Found this article also; In a Model Railroader magazine, June 1982, "Modeling a Cotton Gin" shows how he made his cotton bales. See below.
This article was by the late Cyril Durrenberger. He was a very active modeler of the Texas cotton industry. He had numerous articles in both "Model Railroader" and "Prototype Modeler" magazines.
If you do a search on the Trains Magazine Index
on his name you will find a list of articles.
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Dan
Happiness begins with dessert. :) |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 190 |
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desertdrover
Engineer
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Posted - 11/06/2020 : 12:54:35 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by john holt
Thanks Louis. My modeling era is around 1952-1953 in Texas. The photos are great. Where I live (in west Texas) there are five or six cotton gins scattered about still in operation. Some harvesting still going on, most was done several weeks ago or so. The only bale dimensions I can find are 55" x 21" x 33", a rectangular style bale. I may try some balsa "sticks" and use some dryer lint, spray painted matte white. The burlap, for me, seems to be the tricky part. The panty hose thing might be the ticket but that material is hard to keep in any shape, being so stretchy.
John instead of dryer lint, maybe white knitting yarn can be chopped-up into small pieces and used as the cotton. Also, Don't know how tea bag material instead of panty hose material would work, but it is worth a try.
I'm interested in what you come up with.
@ DanRaitz, thanks for the additional information. Never knew that Model Tech Studios had those.
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Louis
Pacific Northwest Logging in the East Coast
Post count: 5000 posts added to below count.
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Country: USA
| Posts: 16098 |
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Frank Palmer
Fireman
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Posted - 11/07/2020 : 09:29:56 AM
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Remember to beware the Boll Weevil.
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| Frank |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6070 |
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john holt
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 11/07/2020 : 9:24:22 PM
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Dan & Louis....Thanks for more input. The model Tech Studios bales look OK but I may need more than I can afford at their price. MTS had some other items that looked interesting. Louis, I like the tea bag material for burlap....might try that. My dryer collects lint in a flat semi rectangular shape. I thought about spraying with matte white, let it dry then roll it into a flatter shape hoping it still looks cotton like. I will post my creations if worth showing. I am going to try and find some of those old articles on cotton gins also. Thanks again....John
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GULF COAST & WESTERN |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 382 |
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DaveInTheHat
Engine Wiper
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Topic |
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