Very nice so far!

I stay tuned for the updates. BTW cool link to the Plans, thank you.

Nice smoke house

A good start, but if you have the space a brood shed and a corn crib would be appropriate additions to a hog farm. Cleaning the shed was one of my least favorite chores. Looking forward to seeing your progress on the farm.

very nice

I have access to both a ABS and a plaster(Z-Corp) 3-D printer.  I have been thinking about how to use this to make some models.  Thanks for the inspiration.

Storm shelter for the farm

Since I don't have the layout of the farm finalized, I modeled the storm shelter both closed and open, then when I get the layout finalized, I will pick one to install in the diorama.  

These are HO scale, and based on period plans on the North Dakota State web site.  

More pictures and construction drawings can be viewed here:

http://nvrr49.blogspot.com/2013/09/storm-shelter-down-on-farm-2.html

Do you have a map?

Wondering what size/shape you have to work with for this diorama.  I'm in Iowa, live 'in town' as we say, but been to many a farm.  You may try a simple Google Maps look-around with the satellite view, to zoom in on some old farms and see their layout?  Old farms, not the modern big hog confinement lots, of course.

Love your extra details- we see them going through old and small towns and I enjoy seeing such things modeled on layouts.  I was recently thinking about adding a tornado siren to my town, and a storm shelter would be a nice addition too, around my service area for the maintenance crew...just in case!

You could use this same design, maybe mounted along the side of a barn or in the back yard, for use as a cold-cave (also known as a root cellar)- it's a place where you store your garden-grown carrots, potatoes, onions...any 'root' crops or even apples, that you have alot of but want to keep at a constant temperature to eat later.  My wife had one at her rural house that was little more than a 15-foot round mound about 5 feet high, with a cement set of stairs and a plumb door.  Her kids used the mound as a ramp for their bikes and dirt bikes.

Also, a hog farm...how are you going to do the scale aroma?  "That's the smell of money!!" I was once told....

Layout of the buildings

I have no ideal how I will arrange the buildings, but I would like to fit it all in four square feet or LESS.  24" x 24" or 12" x 48" etc.  

My original list of structures: Smokehouse, Storm Shelter, Machinery Shed, House, and Small Octagon Barn.  

Has been expanded to include:

Windmill, gonna use the Woodlands Scenics kit
Hog pen, built from wood
Hog feeder, built with strip wood
Corn Crib, using the laser kit from Blairline
Hog barn/shed in the pen

thanks for the size

If you are HO 24 x 24 should be plenty (I think), and 12x48 would keep the aroma away from the farmhouse...which is not a bad thing!  But that may be too 'long'.  Again, I think doing a satellite view on Google Maps would help.  Farms (without the farm fields) really aren't as big as many people think.  Smaller than a city block? (unless you are talking a New York City block, for example, which is huge).  I can only go by my own experiences, and walking distances on the farms I've visited. If this issue still nags at me (and you), tomorrow I'll do some poking around and get some measurements, via Google Maps and my relatives' farms, and post some stuff tomorrow night.  Same bat-time, same bat-channel.

I do know there is usually a simple concrete slab under a windmill, and most windmills I know don't have all of their blades, and are usually severely rusted or corroded, and have a bent part here and there (from storm debris damage).  I would think the same would be true for 1949- most windmills would have been installed with the homesteaders as a simple necessity, so would be 'old'.  Weeds all around, through the cracks, etc. depending upon which time of year you are modeling for this diorama.  Farmers aren't usually one to fire up a trimmer (esp. in 1949!) to make the water point look neat.  That is more of a modern thing, and maybe bored farm-wives.  BTW, the concrete slab is usually non-level- the ground/frost/cheap pour mix usually makes things un-even quickly.  It'll crack here and there, with this flat part going this way, and this part leaning that way.  The one's I've 'farted around' on as a kid could be three pieces leaning in three different directions!

I know you have to have some pieces of mis-matched fence.  Hogs, and cattle, ruin fences, so patches are needed frequently.  Sometimes a few pieces of 2x8's or 2x6's to plug a hole down level at the ground, etc. to prevent them 'going under'.  And both hogs and cattle lean into fences to scratch-itch, so a few leaning sections going at different angles, lends itself to that realism, I think.  Also, hogs have sharp tusks.  They will literally tear you to shreds if you fall in, and are un-guarded without a base-ball bat!  The Wizard of Oz hints at that, when Dorothy falls in, and the future cowardly lion is in a spell over it.  That isn't to be taken lightly on a farm with pigs!  The tusks will curl if not cut, so some well-weathered wood is in order.  No sharp edge on the boards for these patches, for example.  They'll gnaw at stuff, as will horses for sure.

Wow, for being a city-guy myself I sure do 'know' allot!  Sorry for being long-winded!

I am a city boy

And know next to nothing about farms, but I do like a good cooked dead pig.  Any help is appreciated on the needs and layout of the farm.

Windmill

Google "Aermotor" for good info when it comes time to build your windmill. From that you will see there is a correlation between windmill size (fan diameter and tower height), pumping capacity (diameter and throw), and amount of water needed for X number of hogs. Any hog farmer worth his salt will have the appropriately sized windmill on his farm.

Slaughter House

My small hog farm is going to have a slaughter house.  I 3d printed the basic building, including windows, interior walls, and some interior details.  The shingles are paper that I printed and cut by hand...something I don't think I will do again.

Construction details can be seen here:  http://nvrr49.blogspot.com/2013/09/slaughter-house-3d-printed-down-on-farm.html

Machine Shed/Shop for the farm, 3d printed

Again based on some online plans appropriate for the period I model, 1949.  

The building is concrete block and has a shed on one end for machinery storage.

More construction pictures, plans and drawings can be viewed here:  http://nvrr49.blogspot.com/2013/11/shop-building-machinery-shed-down-on.html

Here is a shot of the finished, unweathered structure, including Creeky shingles from clevermodels.net.  

More on the new shingles from clevermodels.net, and more pictures of the finished model can be seen here:  http://nvrr49.blogspot.com/2014/01/shop-building-machinery-shed-redux-down.html

I will be attending the Amherst show, including putting on a clinic on my experience using the Afinia printer on Thursday morning.  So I will have several of the structures with me, and Afinia is scheduled to have a booth at the show.  

I have not affiliation with Afinia, just have one if their printers.

The house

Not everything on the diorama will be 3d printed, but most of the structures will be.  The exceptions will be:
- the portable feeders will be made from wood, as will the portable hog barns
- the windmill and tool shed will be Woodland Scenics metal kits
- the corn crib will be the Blairline wood kit

The house, however, is 3d printed, including interior walls and doors printed in place with the exterior walls.

Assembled and ready to install on the diorama for final weathering.  The shingles are from Bar Mills.

For more details on it's construction, this link has plans, drawings and more pictures. http://nvrr49.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-house-3d-printed-down-on-farm-5.html

Octagon Barn

The drawing for the print, less the foundation.

The shingles are individually cut from wrinkle paper from Michaels Crafts.  The interior floor is from Clever Models. The rest is 3d printed

Construction details can be viewed here:  http://nvrr49.blogspot.com/2014/01/octagon-barn-3d-printed-down-on-farm-6.html

Hog Farrowing House

This is one of the last 3d printed items to complete the diorama, so I will have to start doing scenery soon.  The main building is 3d printed.  The corrugated roof is from wildwestmodels.com, and I really liked working with it.  

Details of the build can be seen at http://nvrr49.blogspot.com/2014/02/farrowing-barn-down-on-farm-8-3d-printed.html

Sorry I've

never gotten back to you.  I looked at Google satellite images of the farms I know well-enough, and have been disappointed in them- trees block the view and such, or have changed so not quite as I remember them.

That said, placement of buildings and such should maybe emphasize ease-of-use.  Snow in the winter drifts out in the country something terrible!  Doesn't take much of a breeze to gets a 4-6 foot drift around an out-building.  So, the farmer, if he planned ahead, will have things close enough so as not to have a major battle to get toone of his buildings.  That said, there is the smell.  Touched on it earlier....too close and you don't want open windows at your house, and the laundry hanging on the line...could make you want to re-wash them!  So you have to find a balance.  The hog or cattle pens, farther away and maybe behind something else (like a corn-crib or tool shed/garage for tractors), but definitely down-wind.  Chicken houses, not so much.  You want fresh eggs that are easy to get to anytime (winter or summer) so those are usually closer to the house, and I'm guessing at maybe 100-150 feet (minimum 35 yards maybe?).  Did a few 'chores' as a young lad on a farm and getting really fresh eggs was one of them.

Like I say, I'm only going for what farms I know first-hand.  Use logic, and remember farmers are practical people.  Easier is usually better, all things considered.  Slope of the land, trees needing clearing maybe, but also trees needed for wind-break/shade of the farmhouse....and hog house too!  The odd tree is a good realistic thing.

My wife just

raised an interesting point-  again, the practicality of farmers...there was, and even in the modern time, usually only 1 yard light.  It might be mounted on the side of a barn, or on a 'telephone' pole somewhere in the middle, central to all the farm activity.  As a farmer you are up before the dawn and sometimes up after dark, you need that light.  You may not have night lighting planned for your scene but adding at least a dummy light will add to the realism, as will the odd power line from that pole to a hog barn or garage or whatever.  I remember as a youngster messing around on my uncle's Honda three-wheeler and having to avoid their light pole (the three-wheeler is the fore-runner to the Quads now out there in abundance...my uncle broke his color bone in his 60's [in the 1990's] still riding around on one of those "grandfathered" three-wheelers!  Legal to have if "grandfathered" but can't be made anymore of course).

Hog farm plat

Here is the plat plan I am considering.  I may compress things to the front (bottom) and put railroad tracks in along the back.  As I have pointed out, I am using this project as a learning experience in using my 3d printer, and I know almost nothing about how a farm, or in this case, a pig farm, should be arranged.  All feedback and questions are appreciated.  

wow, 19 weeks since I added to this

I designed and 3d printed these two bridges, the small one will be along the back of the farm.  I am trying to finish up the diorama for Maker Faire KC this weekend, but I don't see getting all the scenery done by then, but it may be close.  Design and construction details can be viewed at: http://nvrr49.blogspot.com/2014/06/stone-arch-bridges-3d-printed-down-on.html

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