Hi all
I need some dairy cattle for my HO layout.
Can any one sugest a decent looking brand of cow all the one's I have see are tacky plastic things that are no use.
Unless used in bulk at the back where you can't see just how tacky they really are.
I need a few decent looking ones to go in the foreground.
So close to the front any rubish just won't do the job
regards John
Not sure what you mean by tacky plastic..is it that they are plastic or just the molded color, no better than a structure wall molded color? For my grandson's layout, we found an old Tyco stock car & ramp, complete with cows. For fun, we painted them as black & white "banded" cows as we see in some parts of Texas and they look fine. Maybe just paint factory cows to your liking?
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
Since "tacky" can be in the eye of the beholder, perhaps you should say what brand of cow you find to be unacceptable. I do find the Bachmann cows to have heads that look a bit like that of a hippopotamus -- but that is when they are photographed, not when seen "live" on a layout. Somewhere in some package I still have Selley metal cows, still listed in the Walthers catalog but not currently available. They might be tacky but they aren't plastic tacky.
Dave Nelson
I think these are Wodland Scenics cows.
By tacky I mean cheap and nasty badly moulded and painted poor clean up before painting.
Definatly not a quality brand .
It is geting hard over here to get the little bits that turn things into a proper model railroad.
so far I have not seen a brand name I recognise as a quality product.
So I am going to have to order from off shore which means from Walthers direct and I don't want to get it wrong.
I don't care if the cow is plastic or metal painted or un painted as long as it is a good quality one that looks like a dairy cow should and of course is the right scale in this case HO.
Since I don't need many of them its a case of needing a good quality brand and paying perhaps a little more to get them it really is a quality over quantity issuie because they are right up front.
John,
Check these out by Preiser in the Walthers catalog. There are many more. Look through what they offer after clicking on this link and looking for Preiser figures. Need pigs?? got em'.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/590-10155
Take Care!
Frank
I would go for some unpainted cows as well since dairy cows are not always black and white you might want to add some brown and white guersey cows for example just to make the sence more interesting.
Joe Staten Island West
My vote is to consider the banded / belted cattle as they are somewhat unique and fun. May depend on what locale you model. One attribute is they are easy (the models) to paint! I still don't know "how they did that".
https://www.google.com/search?q=banded+cattle&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:MIE-Address&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=qE0GVLTlC87KgwTSwIGYDw&ved=0CDgQsAQ&biw=1438&bih=793&dpr=0.95
In my experience, Preiser and Mertens make the best figures. Most expensive, too.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
CTValleyRR In my experience, Preiser and Mertens make the best figures. Most expensive, too.
Thanks for the tip I recognise those brand names
One thing is for sure I won't be geting the Viessmsnn HO $71.00 cow though it would be a fun thing to have
Thats one for exhibition layouts or a lot more cash than most of us have floating spare.
For $71 I'd expect the whole herd not one cow. Up
Musket Miniatures makes unpainted metal ones. They have a lot of farm animals and implements. Their web site doesn't show pictures, but I've been happy with everything I've bought from them. Who else has HO scale beavers?
Try a few train shows. There's a vendor who shows up at the ones around here with bargain bins of figures and animals. That's where I got the hogs for my slaughterhouse corral.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
peahrens My vote is to consider the banded / belted cattle as they are somewhat unique and fun. May depend on what locale you model. One attribute is they are easy (the models) to paint! I still don't know "how they did that". https://www.google.com/search?q=banded+cattle&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:MIE-Address&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=qE0GVLTlC87KgwTSwIGYDw&ved=0CDgQsAQ&biw=1438&bih=793&dpr=0.95
That's different urban camoflage on cows
A thought on painting. A typical herd, at least where I grew up, tended to be a single type. You wouldn't find Guernsey's and Holsteins mixed together for example. You'd want your cows to basically look alike.
jim
jmbjmb A thought on painting. A typical herd, at least where I grew up, tended to be a single type. You wouldn't find Guernsey's and Holsteins mixed together for example. You'd want your cows to basically look alike. jim
I'll sexond that. I grew up in the middle of Pennsylvania dairy country. By far the most common cow was the Holstein (mottled black and white), with a distant second being Gurnseys and Jerseys (solid buff color). But never a mixed herd (maybe something to do wiht breeding?).
Dairy cow, color pic's and breed's: Click on pic, for all kinds of info.
Hi guys
Wow it would seem geting cows right is as problomatic as getting the right shade of bright red for the little red caboose
Anyway have ordered Prieser black and whites and a few metals as well.
One thing did surprise me.
I thought I would have seen Texas long horns on the list of cows avalable.
I know they are not dairy cattle, but still I thought they would have been on the list at Walthers but then I searched under Cows and in stock.
John, you might find one or two of the Preiser cows have bells around their necks. They are European after all!
Brian
www.deadwoodcityrailroad.blogspot.com
[quote user="John Busby"]
[quote]
Yampa2003 John, you might find one or two of the Preiser cows have bells around their necks. They are European after all! Brian
well thats two at least that won't get lost
Working on past expierience there is always something in a figure pack that ends up in the junk box.
Because its to good to throw out but you cannot use it, butchers shop or ringing cow bar sign maybe??
Yearss ago as a teenager, on my uncles farm in Ontario, several of his cows had bells on. Made them easier to find, and less likely to startle passing bears.
Dave
Any herds I remember with bells, only the lead cow had a bell. They were usually used on farms where the cows pastured a good distance from the barn, often going through wooded sections. When the lead cow decided it was time to go get milked, the others heard her leaving and followed along.
As for coloration, Holsteins, black and white, but the color patterns can vary from almost totally white to almost totally black (for registration there are some areas that have to have some black or white). Jerseys, little brown cows, vary in color. They can be anywhere from a very light tan (almost white) to black, they can also have color patterns of their brown and white. Other breeds have their color variations too and crosss breds can vary a lot in color and patterns.
Have fun,
Richard
[quote user="Dusty Solo"]
The "tacky" looking cows might be good to fill up a stock car. I'll be needing some beef cattle at some point soon to graze & to transport. If you are dedicated to authentic detail then you would want model cows to be of the same breed as dairy farmers run in the area in which you model - too fussy? Dusty.
Scenery is the area of the hobby I like to think I am good at, I guess I got that way by being far too fussy.
I will allways push it as far as I can go to get that right look ( if there is such a thing)
But I have never had to worry about dairy cows, in the past it was allways black faced sheep and Highland cattle
because they fitted what I was doing they where pritty much the iconic live stock for the area.
It did not take me long to learn certain things can aid in creating that authentic look
Having your farm animals right is one of them.
I am that annoying person who "sees" (If thats the right word) a rabbit should be behind the fence and put's it there knowing 95% maybe more, of people looking at the layout just won't see the rabbit.
Just don't look to closely at my trains there are probably some real shocker's in there starting with everything is nice and shiny definatly far to clean.