Thresher & stable engine by RGL - Plus Model - 1/35

[RGL]

Now for something completely different, a stable engine and a thresher. Nice little resin kits 

[RGL]

There appear to be many iterations of these but they are cool and a massive OH&S risk! 

[RGL]

Big bits on the thresher done 

[RGL]

Pretty much done, flywheels and belts will be added after painting 

[RGL]

And part 3 

[RGL]

Ok time for a bit of paint 

[Canute]

Nice color combination. Back in the day, they really liked to show off the mechanicals with bright paints.

[wefalck]

You have there quite an international collection: an Austrian thresher (Hofherr & Schranz), a German bulb-engine agricultural tractor (Lanz Bulldog), and a Czech(?) hit-and-miss engine (Slavia). Originally, those threshers where either driven from a steam traction-engine or a portable steam-engine. There used to be some white-metal kits of traction-egines in 1/32 scale, but I am not sure that they are still available.

 

In May this year I revisited the Agricultural Museum in Budapest after many decades and took a couple of pictures of the Hofherr & Schranz thresher in their collection. If you are interested, I can post the pictures here.

 

For decades I had such a thresher kit in 1/87 scale in my drawer, but I haven't got around yet to scratch-build the matching portable-steam engine I wanted for a little diorama. 

 

I also remember the Lanz-Bulldog on the fields, when I was a little boy, but they became replaced by more modern diesel tractors in the 1960s. Many though survived and have been lovingly restored. Their engine sound is quite characterstic. There are quite a few pictures of them on the Internet. I also took a lot of shots of the one preserved in the Deutsche Museum in Munich, when I revisted the museum in July this year. However, it is probabaly a different model. Anyway, if you are interested, I can also post pictures here.

 

Edited November 9 by wefalck

[RGL]

Absolutely post the photos, it’s a great opportunity to be a reference page as well. 

Edited November 10 by RGL

[wefalck]

OK, here are the only two pictures of the thresher I took, plus a graphic that shows its functioning:

I thought, I took more pictures, but perhaps not, because the little kit I have is one for a thresher of German make. Lanz, btw. made their own threshers to go with their portable steam-engines and later their Buldog.

 

The pictures appear overexposed, because I lightened up the shadows so that one can better the mechanisms.

 

The thresher is located in the Magyar Mezőgazdasági Múzeum (= Hungarian Agricultural Museum) in Budapest - https://www.mezogazdasagimuzeum.hu/exhibitions/the-history-of-hungarian-agriculture-from-the-beginning-to-1945.

 

And now to the Lanz Ackerbulldog HL12 of 1924 in the Deutsche Museum in Munich. I forgot that this was the first model Lanz made and until 1938 the Bulldog considerably evolved. So the pictures would not be of much use to you. Here is just one to show you what they got:

Here is a Web-page dedicated to the Bulldogs: http://www.lanz-bulldog-homepage.de/src/bida/hr8.html

 

Edited November 10 by wefalck

[RGL]

Fantastic mate, thankyou, great weathering reference too! 

[RGL]

Here’s the little stable engine that I’ll use to run it 

[RGL]

Now for some paint 

[RGL]

Base coat down, clear coat and decals next 

[Rik Thistle]

RGL,

 

On my Dad's farm, at harvest time, the thresher used to arrive plus a road going steam tractor.

 

Once they were hooked up and working, the noise movement, worker activity and 'stoor' was more than a very young child could wish to see. Very happy days.

 

Richard

 

[wefalck]

All over Europe, threshing contractors were going around from farm to farm (as were ploughing contractors), as buying threshers (or steam-ploughing sets) would not be economical for individual farms.

[RGL]

here in Oz, harvesters are usually contractors here now and they’ll do the harvest system as a header probably costs $1M unless you’re a really big operation. Were a bit like Ukraine for the pure size of our crops 

[wefalck]

Today in Europe combine-harvesters are usually owned by contractors or by a cooperative of farmers. You need quite a few hectares to amortise one. In pre-War Eastern Europe there were often large land-owners (landed gentry) that farmed almost at industrial scale and had their own machinery, sometimes even narrow-gauge field-railways to transport the produce.

[RGL]

Dr Google says the average European farming 17ha these days. I watched Clarksons farm in Netflix. They’re tiny !

[Rik Thistle]

All over Europe, threshing contractors were going around from farm to farm (as were ploughing contractors), as buying threshers (or steam-ploughing sets) would not be economical for individual farms.

 

Yes, certainly in Scotland the farms tend to be quite small compared to the USA, say. There are sheep farms in the Scottish borders at about 2,000 acres but usually farms are much smaller. There is a tendency now to merge farms (and remove hedgerows) to improve efficiency, but I suspect the large capital equipment is still hired in.

 

In England, Harry's Farm (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFNRLTPU9263dTOYgrVcnHw/videos )  has it own combine harvester but Harry (like Clarkson) has other revenue streams.

 

Anyway, RGL, thank you for doing this impressive build...it looks superb and has rekindled some very old and fond memories.

 

Richard

 

Edit: From Wiki....  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combine_harvester

History - In 1826 in Scotland, the inventor Reverend Patrick Bell designed a reaper machine, which used the scissors principle of plant cutting (a principle that is used to this day). The Bell machine was pushed by horses. A few Bell machines were available in the United States. In 1835, in the United States, Hiram Moore built and patented the first combine harvester, which was capable of reaping, threshing and winnowing cereal grain. Early versions were pulled by horse, mule or ox teams.

---------

A parallel development in Australia saw the development of the stripper based on the Gallic stripper, by John Ridley and others in South Australia by 1843.

 

I didn't know any of that....I learn something new every day 😉  I remember we still had a couple of Clydesdale horses on the farm but they were in well deserved retirement. Powerful, friendly animals.

 

 

Edited November 13 by Rik Thistle

[wefalck]

Coming back to the subject of modelling as such, I think I found a good solution for simulating blank cast-iron parts, such as the surfaces of pulleys, and also the steel tyres on cast-iron wheels : I first run them slowly on the lathe (or a hand-held drill) and smooth the surface of the plastic part with very find wet-and-dry sandpaper. For cast-iron I then spray the part in black and for steel I spray in some silver or 'steel' paint. The next step is to rub a soft pencil on the surface and burnish this with either a cotton-stick or one of those paper 'smudging' sticks artists use. I think the results are quite convincing:

This is a Fowler Z7 ploughing engine in 1/72 scale on the basis of an old KeilKraft kit that I made some 35 years ago.

[king derelict]

10 hours ago, wefalck said:

I think I found a good solution for simulating blank cast-iron parts, such as the surfaces of pulleys, and also the steel tyres on cast-iron wheels

A great idea and beautifully executed 

alan

[RGL]

Weathering and decals done.  Is I have to figure out the belts but overall it’s coming up OK 

[Old Collingwood]

That is looking superb Greg  -  love the  wood  works  you  hqave simulated.

 

OC.

[wefalck]

I am a totally urban person coming from totally urban backgrounds of all my ancestors 🤓. Perhaps, that is why I was always interested in such agricultural subjects ...

 

The German (Technical) Museum in Munich has a replica of the first horse-drawn mechanical reaper of 1831 by McCormick:

The basic operating mechanism for cutting has not changed much since.

 

Anyway, back to the practicalities of modelling: for the leather driving belts I would cut narrow strips of thin paper of the apropriate width, lay them out on a (card)board covered with cling-film and give them a liberal coat of paint on both sides. When putting them around the sheaves, the seams can be hidden underneath the pulleys out of sight. On the prototype, the belts would be stitched together using metal clips not unlike paper staples. Sometimes they were also laced together. The belts were also treated to make waterproof, but I don't remember with what, as they shouldn't become slippery.  Remember that the belts workd through the friction between the leather and the cast-iron and are not normally tensioned fully. The amount of pulley surface around which they wrap is more important. Such pulleys are actually not flat, but slightly domed - it may be counterintuitive, but this is what keeps them centered on the pulley.

 

There are some videos on YouTube that show such belts in action.

 

[RGL]

Part 3 of the build 

[RGL]

Now some wear and tear. Clear coat, decals and more weathering next 

[RGL]

This has come up OK

[druxey]

Very convincing rust and grime!

[RGL]

So I’m not sure if I’ll do it as a drip yet, I’ve got some figures in the mail