"Update"

I just finished the video for making these hay bales... I know it took ages but I guess work got in the way and I unfortunately picked up my daughters cold which took me out for a week or so!

Hope you guys enjoy and maybe pick up an idea or two

And here is a better photo as well.

Recently I've been experimenting with making hay bales, there is plenty of info and guides on making square bales but I struggled to find info on the big round ones you see these days.

It's amazing to think farmers have been using the round baler machine since the 1940's, I used to think they were a modern invention from the last 30 years or so! Anyhow, when I go driving today I hardly see the square bales anymore... it's probably 90% round bales.

I plan on doing a proper YouTube video tutorial on making the bales, they are VERY easy to make and look quite good. Basically I used a 'Chopper' and cut a length of twine (thin fiber string in a natural straw color) but you could just as easily use a hobby knife or scissors and chop the twine up into very small pieces about 1mm long and no longer than 2mm, then I laid out a length of sticky tape approximately 60cm long with the sticky side up, sprinkle the cut fibers over the top and press them in and finally roll the tape into a cylinder shape and glue the end.

The width of the tape I used was 12 mm wide which results in a bale thats approximately 1.10m in HO scale and the diameter was about 1.3m in HO scale.

What I love most about this method is the obvious rolled up effect, you can tell by the circular appearance from looking at the bale side on that it has been rolled which is how it's made on the prototype.

I'll post an update once I finish the YouTube video.

Cheers
Luke Towan