Down On the Farm (1 Viewer)

theBaron said:
Excellent work, John! The foxes are particularly nice, and I love your herd of cattle. The farmer figure is also a very attractive addition to your collection, with his herd.

Glad you like the foxes Brad - they're my favourites too.

I've seen a number of additional farm figures up on eBay right now, Britains and other makers, and both male farmhands and milkmaids, etc. They'd all make excellent raw material for just your sort of refurbishment.

Keep 'em coming, prosit!
Brad
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I know Brad - I keep looking. Snag is - The Commandant here at Stalag XXX has said that buying any more, before I've completed some of the last couple or five lots of figures ist verboten!:(

I think this is what she means...............(sigh!) Notice I've started off a couple or three milkmaids already - so keep looking in - they'll get on the job soon. ^&grin jb

 
johnnybach said:
...Notice I've started off a couple or three milkmaids already - so keep looking in - they'll get on the job soon. ^&grin jb

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And now you've reminded me of the old fable!

A Maid was carrying her pail of milk to the farm-house, when she fell a-musing. "The money for which this milk will be sold will buy at least three hundred eggs. The eggs, allowing for all mishaps, will produce two hundred and fifty chickens. The chickens will become ready for market when poultry will fetch the highest price; so that by the end of the year I shall have money enough to buy a new gown. In this dress I will go to the Christmas junketings, when all the young fellows will propose to me, but I will toss my head, and refuse them every one." At this moment she tossed her head in unison with her thoughts, when down fell the Milk-pot to the ground, and broke into a hundred pieces, and all her fine schemes perished in a moment. Count not your chickens before they are hatched.​

Prost!
Brad
 
theBaron said:
And now you've reminded me of the old fable!

A Maid was carrying her pail of milk to the farm-house, when she fell a-musing. "The money for which this milk will be sold will buy at least three hundred eggs. The eggs, allowing for all mishaps, will produce two hundred and fifty chickens. The chickens will become ready for market when poultry will fetch the highest price; so that by the end of the year I shall have money enough to buy a new gown. In this dress I will go to the Christmas junketings, when all the young fellows will propose to me, but I will toss my head, and refuse them every one." At this moment she tossed her head in unison with her thoughts, when down fell the Milk-pot to the ground, and broke into a hundred pieces, and all her fine schemes perished in a moment. Count not your chickens before they are hatched.​

Prost!
Brad
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I have a couple of chickens ( in need of TLC - again ), and a chicken-house - somewhere in my stash! I'll have to find out where the little varmints have gone..................so...............don't count on them!

I've been doing a bit more work on restoring my new horse and cart today - looking good..................so far..............jb
 
farmertony said:
I find all this really interesting.Great post! Keep up the good work.
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Okay Tony - here's a few more recently completed.



Attached repaired and repainted Cart and Carthorse at the rear - with Carter with whip alongside (All Britains). Still have to find or make a rear part for the cart. There are three new milkmaids in action here. Yellow dress lass with milk pan is by Britains.

The two others on milking stool and walking with bucket of milk are by Johillco - as is the new shepherd in blue smock with a stick in one hand and smoking a pipe with the other hand.

I've also squeezed in my orphaned Highland Calf.

All the above have had minor repairs or imperfections corrected before being repainted. The cart was repainted in similar colours to when found, after rusted parts were removed and re-made again. jb
 
Another group of lovely figures JB, not that it matters but the two milkmaids and shepherd in blue smock are all by Timpo. I think the calf is Johilco.
 
thebritfarmer said:
Another group of lovely figures JB, not that it matters but the two milkmaids and shepherd in blue smock are all by Timpo. I think the calf is Johilco.
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I realised my error just after midnight - when I woke up - and thought that!!!!! Funny how your mind ticks over when asleep. You are absolutely correct on this one Scott.

I still have lots of figures and animals in this line to get around too as well as "partial" bits and pieces to find parts for. My Tumbrel Cart still requires a rear gate and one of the extending pieces that increase the carrying loads. I will either find them to fix up - or make these from scratch - and I also have other bits and pieces of other carts to work on for the future. So.....watch out for a few more yet.

I'm also repairing around twenty-odd Zoo animals - which I intend to show (when I have a bit of time) in a new thread - as I don't think I've seen one on the Forum.

Cheers - jb
 
Latest figure to emerge from the Chaos of my desktop - is below.

He's another Gentleman Farmer (Britains 501 - available both pre and post-war). I think of them as twin brothers who have adjacent farms.
My first of these two figures came without an arm/stick and feet - so Dorset Soldier spare parts helped fix 'em up. My latest one (left figure) came with both feet and arm - but no walking stick, which was snapped off and lost. [Note: the arm on this figure originally, was a rather ugly loose one with riveted joint - which I hate - as they nearly always get broken or lost, over the years. I regularly convert them to a fixed arm, and "lose" the ugly joint].

So I made a new stick, with a length of paper-clip and some milliput rolled out very thinly, and then glued and twined carefully around it - to suggest a Barley-twist walking stick. As I prefer figures to be individuals wherever possible, I gave him a slightly different pose to his brother - and the stick is grounded behind his feet. Just enough to make him that little bit more different to his bro'. jb

 
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My latest pic., shows that I have at last got around to finishing repairs on the Tumbril Cart, as well as afew more completed figures.

Note the new (scratchbuilt from alloy sheet) tailgate, which differes very slightly from the original, but slots into the cart's restraing hooks in just the same way. It lifts out easily - and the cart can still tip out it's contents, if required. I have a few scruffy milk-churns as a load at the moment - but will repaint these too. This cart SHOULD have two *Hay Ladders* - but I only have one at the moment. This too was repaired, as the closest "rung" to the cart has been repaired with metal core and milliput outer. (**extension pieces which multiply the carrying capacity of the cart for bulky contents like hay - either loose or in bales )

The two Britains Carters - to the right have both been repaired. Carter with whip has had a new arm with whip fitted (Dorset spare), whilst the other is a conversion - with a plain arm converted by giving the carter a stick (Metal rod pinned into drilled out hand and stuck into shallow hole in base). The two foreground figures on the left are a gardener figure from Pixieland-Kew, who is waiting for a lawnmower that he lost sometime between 1923 and now! (still looking and bidding!): whilst the overalled Garage Mechanic is striding off to fix something with an oil-can to his chest and spanner in hand. He's from Timpo - and whilst not strictly speaking a Farm Worker - he could be off to fix the cart. jb

 
And here's another view of my Cart - complete with milk-churn load, and horse being led by Carter with whip. In front, my new Carter with stick is talking to my Timpo shepherd ( now you can see where I got the idea of giving him a stick came from - as Britains never did!).:D

My new refurbished Calves are, to the left: Small pair of Britains young calves laying down (No.533). The slightly larger laying down calf to the rear is from JoHillco, and the standing Brown and white calf is from Cherilea. All have had minor repairs such as new ear, or holes fixed. The other Shaggy Highland Calf is also from JoHillco. Both standing calves were leg repairs - so I have given them a small stand to make the leg-jonits even stronger. The small fence-section, by the way - is from Segal (another long-gone manufacturer).

 
A few extra cattle for my Dairy herd - brings my total beasts ( including calves) up to 18 now. Note that I've promoted my walking man with a stick to be a herdsman. My extra cattle this time, includes figures from Timpo (being milked appropriately by a Timpo milkmaid on a stool), a lying down cow from F G Taylor & Sons (who also made the repaired well at rear) - and a few various calves by Britains, Crescent, and Johillco.

The cream hurdles at the rear - are repaired/repainted (mostly straightened out) items by JoHillco - whilst my piece of picket fencing (need varnishing yet) was made up from pieces of wooden coffee stirrers ( from my local coffee shop) and a lolly stick as a base! [NB. Strightening thin parts is best done with pieces warmed through, by resting them on a radiator until nicely warm, when they can be un-bent using hand pressure only] ^&grin

I'm thinking that should do it - for my herd - but it all depends on what I find in future lots from the Internet. jb


 
jazzeum said:
Nice to see something different JB!
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Yes - thanks Brad. I like to think that posting "different" things will help others to develop their collecting - and maybe explore areas they haven't seen before. I must admit, that I got into this area by accident really - by bidding on job-lot items which contained both these Farm ( and Zoo figures) - and some Cart Horses that I required for other projects ( such as Brewery Dray Horses). However, once I had them in my possession - there was the nice challenge of repairing them - and to my everlasting surprise - I found that once fixed up, I really enjoyed them too.

The icing on the cake, for me, was a visit from my Grand-daughter - who absolutely loved them. So............no guesses as to who will be having these in a few years time!:D jb
 
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