Suggestions For N Scale Cow Patties

[rrebell]

cowman

In pens as crowded as they are at a slaughter house, a cow patty wouldn't stay in its original form long.  Those pens become mixed rapidly.  I presume there is some regulation on cleanliness, but even a freshly bedded pen, the cows walking around would quickly mix the patties and the bedding.  I think for a pen, I'd use a fine ground foam of sawdust color and dab a few spots with a darker color, brown or greenish black.  Since the cows are usually on the move, they seldom drop a complete patty, it's usually spread as they walk.

Good luck,

Richard

 

Funny, I remember the cows staying put alot of time and they whould do it wherever they were. As for the aroma, if you worked the farm for awhile it didn'd really bother you.

[jdr3366]

Woodland Scenics? Why am I not surprised.

[Enzoamps]

Sorry, I can't shake the mental image of an HO horse standing in a field, and an animation unit would have little road apples falling from his butt.

MAybe not in N scale, but I also see a cow pie with a footprint in it, and a figure standing nearby with his leg bent, and looking at the bottom of his shoe.

[SeeYou190]

doctorwayne

Some years ago, the was an advertiser in MR, known as Olfactory Airs,

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I had a bottle of the coal smoke, and it was very impressive. My only exposure to coal smoke was at Florida Live Steamer events, but it was spot on accurate.

.

For cow patties... get a thick brown craft paint in a tube. Put a spot on the layout, roughen it up a bit with a damp sculpting tool, and let it dry. That is how I have made cow patties on military displays. It works out quite well.

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-Kevin

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[PED]

I think everyone has missed the obvious. Get some N scale cows and let them make all the patties you need.

[joe323]

In Montana, they used to sell well. How do I put it nicely &)$$ repellant in a spray can if you really want the smell.

[j. c.]

scenic express (don't know if still produced) had a 32 oz.shaker called farm pasture blend. but as op have said in a feed lot/slauter house pen it would not be a patty for long , worked in feedlot for a while and never saw a  patty just a darkish brown/green . 

[paliz]

Woodland Scenics already do exactly what you want, complete with cow patties!

https://www.hobbylinc.com/woodland-black-angus-cows-pkg7-n-scale-model-railroad-figure-2217

[caldreamer]

jdr3366:

  I live in south central Pennsylvania.  We have plenty of farms around here.  Thee is a large one about two miles from my home, so I am familiar with "Ode De Cow" ala "Ambrosia".

[doctorwayne]

Some years ago, the was an advertiser in MR, known as Olfactory Airs, offering scents for model railroading.  If I recall correctly, creosote, coal smoke, diesel exhaust, and manure were among their offerings.

And quite a few years before that, Varney advertised their new, plastic stock car as being so well-detailed, that it "had everything but the smell".

I get enough flak for the "trains in the basement", so I don't think I'll push my luck by adding aromas.

There was an earlier discussion which mentioned the company.

Wayne

[NWP SWP]

After I while you come to Wallah Wallah Washington and run into a brick Wallah!

Seriously though, its not a bad idea!

[Track fiddler]

Hey this could be the new wave.

I mean come on we've had sound decoders for the last twenty-thirty years.... our digital technology is way out of the box.... They could start manufacturing scent decoders.

Your locomotive goes by a bunch of flower beds, and, kind of like scratch and sniff, you smell a bunch of roses.

Your locomotive goes by a new highway with the tar machine still present, you smell the fresh aroma of tar.

Your locomotive goes over an old railroad trestle, you smell the sweet smell of creosote.

Your locomotive goes by a slaughterhouse, and you smell a bunch of Cow Crap.... 

PS.... They may have to include a strap-on gas mask sold with the new sent decoder system. (edit) Took out the Wallah. I looked it up, didn't like it.

[NWP SWP]

Well for the aroma you could either get fresh manure or the composted garden stuff, place some in large jar, fill with water, put on lid, let sit in sun for two days, open, strain, and then put the liquid in one of those essential oil diffuser things that you put the water and oil in and a ultrasonic element turns into vapor, and done now you have manure scented air freshener, realism acheived.

 

[Track fiddler]

.... I thought I've seen and heard every possible subject on our Railroad Forum during my short year-and-a-half being a member here.... I stand corrected! 

Seriously though I'm sure there very well could be a serious side to this thread. Many modelers are very serious on what they're doing and modeling.

I'm sure crap is the big part of the picture modeling a slaughterhouse. When the aroma part of the picture was brought up, that's what threw me way out into left field.

Just saying

[jdr3366]

I think you should go out and collect some real patties. Cut them in little pieces and then inhale. 

[NWP SWP]

Actually coffee grounds covered in some glue to make some spots look "runny" would be pretty good dress it with earthtone paints and done, or sawdust would be good because you could dye it and do some green to represent the grass that might have gotten scooped up with the manure. Good luck!

[Little Timmy]

Try coffee ground's. 

Most of the other suggestion's here  ..... "Stink".

[caldreamer]

I have the cow patties, thanks for all the tips.  I am now working on a manure pile to sit just outside of the pens.  Should be ready tomorrow.  I will get a front end loader to sit next the maure pile at the next train show.

[josephbw]

I'm guessing you never spent much time at a dairy farm. It's not the worst manure smell, but it's far from pleasant.

[Silverliner266]

cowman

In pens as crowded as they are at a slaughter house, a cow patty wouldn't stay in its original form long.  Those pens become mixed rapidly.  I presume there is some regulation on cleanliness, but even a freshly bedded pen, the cows walking around would quickly mix the patties and the bedding.  I think for a pen, I'd use a fine ground foam of sawdust color and dab a few spots with a darker color, brown or greenish black.  Since the cows are usually on the move, they seldom drop a complete patty, it's usually spread as they walk.

Good luck,

Richard

 

 

This is spot on.

I've never been to a slaughter house but I have been to my share of feed lots. The cows aren't so much standing on solid ground as 6-8 inches of the rankest mud you will ever smell in your life. Cows make other by-products besides pies... 

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Why not use the real stuff? ... Go to the barn yard and pick it up from the ground. You need only a tiny amount of it to be N scale. The odor won't be noticable being so small. ... 

[riogrande5761]

Definitely way way down on my list of things to do. 

I do hope to have a layout that is so finished that one of the only things left to do is put cow patties down.

[NWP SWP]

Horse hockey!

In N scale manure piles aren't exactly going to to be noticeable, now one will really notice will they?

Perhaps model piled up manure as if the stalls had been cleared out.

If someone is telling you they're going to notice that there's no cow manure pilesbehind the cows they're piling some manure on you!

Unless of course you've got that breed of cow! 

[mobilman44]

I've done considerable stomping in cow pastures near Cleveland (Texas) and can say the color varies from a rich brown/black to light brown and anywhere in between.  For my HO layout, I set out drops of flat black and brown with the brush tipped back and forth in each, and then touching the ground.  I would do the same for N, but only smaller drops.

BTW, in a pasture, if the "pie" is left alone, very soon it sprouts weeds/grasses from the pile, which will totally cover it very soon.  They are easily spotted in the pasture as "lumps" of heavy vegetation.

 

 

[hminky]

Small dots of olive green acrylic paint for fresh.

Small dots of brown for aged.

Cow patties are basically oderless, maybe large piles of manure smell.

Harold

[tstage]

I meant for the desired aroma...

[DSchmitt]

tstage

 

 

caldreamer

Does anyone have any suggestions on the approprite aroma to go with cow patties?

 

 

 

Seriously???  If you want to go all-out then stop off at a farm and get the "real stuff"...

 

Would not work.  Out of scale.

 

Thisi is definately a crappy topic.

[tstage]

caldreamer

Does anyone have any suggestions on the approprite aroma to go with cow patties?

Seriously???  If you want to go all-out then stop off at a farm and get the "real stuff"...

[cowman]

In pens as crowded as they are at a slaughter house, a cow patty wouldn't stay in its original form long.  Those pens become mixed rapidly.  I presume there is some regulation on cleanliness, but even a freshly bedded pen, the cows walking around would quickly mix the patties and the bedding.  I think for a pen, I'd use a fine ground foam of sawdust color and dab a few spots with a darker color, brown or greenish black.  Since the cows are usually on the move, they seldom drop a complete patty, it's usually spread as they walk.

Good luck,

Richard