Vegetables

[Julia]

 

Part of my h0e scale layout is intended to feature a small vegetable garden. Before I get a second mortgage and buy some of the items from the likes of noch, I'm wondering if anyone can suggest ways of making vegetables in H0 scale

 

Thanks

 

Julia

[jcmjcm]

There is an article in the October2012 Railway Modeller entitled "street scenes and allotments" that uses Fimo modelling clay.

I have used this product to make scrap tyres for a garage scene.

JCM

[hayfield]

Part of my h0e scale layout is intended to feature a small vegetable garden. Before I get a second mortgage and buy some of the items from the likes of noch, I'm wondering if anyone can suggest ways of making vegetables in H0 scale

 

Thanks

 

Julia

 

Lots of articles over the years using modelling clay (now Flymo) and tissue paper (wrapping up type which is a bit stiffer) for leaves. Not just for gardens and fields but also to put into boxes, oranges, apples root veg etc

[TheSignalEngineer]

Before you spend lots make sure what you are getting is in-season. My other hobby is growing vegetables, and little grates more on me at exhibitions than a garden with spring flowers and autumn vegetables in full flush at the same time.

[Julia]

Before you spend lots make sure what you are getting is in-season. My other hobby is growing vegetables, and little grates more on me at exhibitions than a garden with spring flowers and autumn vegetables in full flush at the same time.

 

I too like to grow vegetables, and I have to admit that it grates with me too.

 

My layout is set in late summer.

 

J

[Gwiwer]

Being the proud owner of several packets of the Noch items I can also vouch for the likelihood that it may be easier (or at least no less difficult) to make your own compared with the assembly of moulded plastic tomatoes onto the vine, for example! Fiddly it most certainly is; convincing is a matter of debate. The most convincing I have in use as the bean canes from the laser-cut range though getting the leaves to stick and stay stuck also seems to be an art in itself.

[Removed a/c]

Have a look in the spice cabinet too !! Perhaps painted peppercorns green for cabbages, cloves can be painted white with green paint on the spikes for cauliflowers

[kandc_au]

Have a look in the spice cabinet too !! Perhaps painted peppercorns green for cabbages, cloves can be painted white with green paint on the spikes for cauliflowers

 

Things like this need to be put on a sticky so they are easily found,added to and referenced.

 

Khris

[Middlesea John]

I'm building a row of shops for the new Hull MRS layout "Ladycross" which is set in the New Forest in August 1962. One of these shops is a greengrocer so I will need fruit and veg in boxes outside the front of the shop (for the customers to see and the ponies to eat of course). My current thought is to use the heads of different types of pin, which I hope to paint then snip off the pin part and drop the heads into crates/boxes. Any more sensible and less eye-straining ideas would be appreciated. I realise as i write that it will entail me measuring things in the supermarket.

Thinking on from that, does anyone have a definitive list of what was in season when fruit and veg used to have a season, i.e. before Tesco sold them all year round.

I hope I'm not asking too many questions here.

[shortliner]

Those round headed pins (Dressmakers and Map) will paint up for cabbages and cauliflowers. Glass rocaille beads - crafters supplies - will make veg in boxes - I have seen (in the last couple of days)piles of poppy seeds stuck over a former and painted green for apples - if I can find the link I'll post it. Seasoning seeds from supermarkets may help too. Small clumps of hemp garden twine planted in rows of holes for onions

Edit - for the person who wanted green grocery http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/Item/A1896/page/1

[Thos]

does anyone have a definitive list of what was in season when fruit and veg used to have a season,

I suggest downloading the vegplanner from the RHS http://www.rhs.org.uk/gardening/grow-your-own as a start.

[Removed a/c]

Preiser also make boxes with veg all ready in them just need a lick of paint. I would raid the cupboards and see what spices are available as I said earlier, don't forget rice either, I have seen it painted green with a tip of brown for corn, painted orange for carrots.....depending on the scale you are using of course. You can use Fimo or Sculpy to make them as well. Also just keep your eyes peeled for small beads etc....

 

May find it cheaper than this on the bay http://www.amazon.co.uk/Preiser-17501-Fruit-Vegetable-Boxes/dp/B001B7OAD4

 

 

[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]

I am currently building some allotments on llanfyllin, I have built the Runner Bean Sticks and have spent a while cutting leaves from tissue paper painted green, Cut millimetre thick strips and then cut into little diamond shapes, Run some pale green cotton through some PVA and drag it through the leaves.

I have rolled up some tissue into about 1 1/2 mm balls and am using a hole punch to cut out some leave, will wrap a couple round each cabbage heart.

It is very fiddly though, I am hoping to use some of my Thyme twigs (bought for creating a recently laid hedge) to set up for pea sticks.

Potatoes should be a trench with poly fibre or horse hair with added green leaves

Has anyone made a green house or cold frame? I need a Half relief greenhouse, I thought about using canopy glue to stick evergreen strip to clear poly sheet.

[hayfield]

Has anyone made a green house or cold frame? I need a Half relief greenhouse, I thought about using canopy glue to stick evergreen strip to clear poly sheet.

 

I think Wills has a lean to greenhouse and cold frame kit. Also someone does greenhouses (Kibri / Faller ?) but will be 3.5mm scale though

[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]

Thanks I had not seen the Wills Greenhouse before only a Hornby one (a lot more expensive!)

[Gwiwer]

The Wills greenhouse is quite convincing and can be painted any colour you wish though is supplied in green plastic. I was looking for pictures of mine (which has a quite magnificent Busch pumpkin plant growing along the shelf!) but they're hiding somewhere in an uncurated heap. If found I'll post later.

[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]

There is an article in the October2012 Railway Modeller entitled "street scenes and allotments" that uses Fimo modelling clay.

I have used this product to make scrap tyres for a garage scene.

JCM

Did it just show how to model the vegetables, for some reason I have missed this magazine, must have come out when I was on holiday. Will have to try and find a copy

[Tim Hale]

The Wills greenhouse is quite convincing and can be painted any colour you wish though is supplied in green plastic. I was looking for pictures of mine (which has a quite magnificent Busch pumpkin plant growing along the shelf!) but they're hiding somewhere in an uncurated heap. If found I'll post later.

 

Green plastic? Mine was white although I did repaint it to take off the shine.

 

[Guest]

My wife keeps canaries and parrots, so when she's not looking, I grab a handful of birdseed, paint the seeds with dabs of green, red and yellow ochre acrylic. The result is a reasonable representation of vegetables.

 

 

Snitzl

[southern42]

I'm building a row of shops for the new Hull MRS layout "Ladycross" which is set in the New Forest in August 1962. One of these shops is a greengrocer so I will need fruit and veg in boxes outside the front of the shop (for the customers to see and the ponies to eat of course). My current thought is to use the heads of different types of pin, which I hope to paint then snip off the pin part and drop the heads into crates/boxes. Any more sensible and less eye-straining ideas would be appreciated. I realise as i write that it will entail me measuring things in the supermarket.

Thinking on from that, does anyone have a definitive list of what was in season when fruit and veg used to have a season, i.e. before Tesco sold them all year round.

I hope I'm not asking too many questions here.

 

A few things I remember from casual working in a greengrocer mid 60s -early 70s

 

English apples in the autumn (Coxes, Worcesters and Russets).

Newtown Pippins came in for Christmas, as did the tangerines, clementines and satsumas, and the nuts.

 

Bananas were all year round and were usually labelled "Fyffes"

Potatoes were Whites or King Edwards and in the summer, there were new potatoes, Jersey's being the best and top price.

 

Tomatoes were English, Canary, Dutch or Guernsey. As they ripened in the shop they would get put into trays at a lower price or marked "for frying" at an even cheaper price. Rotten fruit and veg got binned so as not to ruin the rest of the stock (In this shop, it wasn't sneaked into a customer's bag as I was witness to in another - so you need to choose which sort of establishment you wish to model ) Things at their best by date such as strawberries and peaches that wouldn't keep 'til Monday were given to staff to take home for tea.

 

Easter through summer was filled with salad stuff and soft fruit.

Winter saw an increase in green stuff and root veg.

Australia and South Africa kept the seasons going.

 

Christmas: Add large and small Christmas trees outside the door (this shop was on the corner with a 3ft wall out at rightangles to support them all) and holly branches. Mistletoe was hung up inside the shop on hooks.

 

Staff were constantly having cups of tea (I burnt through the bottom of at least two kettles while I got called back into the shop to serve a long queue of customers that had sudennly appeared after lighting the gas.) Someone went out at 11am to buy ham rolls from the shop a few doors down. On Christmas Eve, when it had quietened down, usually after 3pm, Mr Green went out with the barrow boy to get fish and chips for everyone (7 in total) .

 

Mr Green would be back from the Market with a lorryload of stuff by the time I started around 8.30am. He would then go off again in the afternnoon. Round the back was a shed known as the "Cold Room" which had a heavy metal door. When the doors were open you could see stacks of bushel boxes and sacks of vegetables, carboard boxes of apples and pears,and trays of things such as soft fruit and tomatoes. Long cardboard boxes of bananas were kept in the shop behind the potato bins.

 

Staff consisted of Mr and Mrs Green, the owners. Mr was in charge of the barrow boy (Friday, Saturday), Mrs in charge of the rest of us: two ladies, one junior and me (aged 14 when I started - Ah!)

 

 

Well, that has taken me back a bit. Happy memories.

I hope some of this is of help.

 

Look forward to seeing your shop. And, of course, you will be able to have all the local produce from around your area, too.

 

EDIT.A couple of extra details...

The fruit and vegetable bins went round the walls with a walkaround stall of fruit trays to one side and trays of fruit and mushrooms in the window.

 

Customers queued up to be served. This queue would carry on out of the door when at its busiest or before doors opened especially on Saturdays before the Bank Holiday or on Christmas EVe.

 

Customers came with their own bag or trolley. VEgetables were wrapped up in newspaper, fruit and anything special were put in brown paper bags. The shop also carried a few blastic bags of prepacked potatoes (expensive) and sacks of coal outside in winter.

 

Vegetables were weighed on large scales, fruit on smaller ones - in lbs and ozs (pounds and ounces)

[Chubber]

Not my idea, but a brilliant way of imitating boxes of apples is to glue poppy-seeds in the appropriate shaped pile and paint red/yellow/green..

 

Doug

[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]

Southern42, I too worked in a GreenGrocers shop owned by a Mr Green between 1970 and 1972 when I joined the Navy. I worked in all three of the shops he owned in Stratford on Avon all with very fond memories.

 

I have to agree about your comments, did you not think though that cabbages and Cauli were much much larger than I see on sale now. We had Jersey Royals and also jersey Mids which were tiny kidney shaped potatoes, have not seen those since.

 

I have just been painting some tissue paper for more leaves, I am trying to get some glossy for rhubarb, though not sure what to use for the stalks

[Chubber]

Southern42, I too worked in a GreenGrocers shop owned by a Mr Green between 1970 and 1972 when I joined the Navy. I worked in all three of the shops he owned in Stratford on Avon all with very fond memories.

 

I have to agree about your comments, did you not think though that cabbages and Cauli were much much larger than I see on sale now. We had Jersey Royals and also jersey Mids which were tiny kidney shaped potatoes, have not seen those since.

 

I have just been painting some tissue paper for more leaves, I am trying to get some glossy for rhubarb, though not sure what to use for the stalks

 

.........have you thought of the very fine red plastic plastic tube that comes with WD40 tins? Carefully sliced lengthways into 4 or more pieces it could give you some stalks, and bend easily, too.

 

Doug

[Gwiwer]

Green plastic? Mine was white although I did repaint it to take off the shine.

 

 

Mine is the lean-to mentioned by Hayfield above and which is green.

[southern42]

Southern42, I too worked in a GreenGrocers shop owned by a Mr Green between 1970 and 1972 when I joined the Navy. I worked in all three of the shops he owned in Stratford on Avon all with very fond memories.

 

I have to agree about your comments, did you not think though that cabbages and Cauli were much much larger than I see on sale now. We had Jersey Royals and also jersey Mids which were tiny kidney shaped potatoes, have not seen those since.

 

I have just been painting some tissue paper for more leaves, I am trying to get some glossy for rhubarb, though not sure what to use for the stalks

 

I seem to remember that most veg came boxed in assorted sizes so customers would ask me to pick out the 'big spuds' or the 'small onions' much to Mrs Green's disgust. She didn't want to be stuck with the unsellable size - so no sorting, thank you very much (except for the known 'awkward' or 'important' customers, of course) .

Not sure about caulis, but cabbages and greens were huge. Brussel sprouts arrived after the first frost and were a decent size not like the tiddly ones you get these days.

 

Watercress was nice and crisp not limp and starved of water (as in water - cress, der!) as I see today.

Then there were peas and runner beans that looked as though they had just been picked.

Rarely did I see rhubarb - nearly every garden had its own.

Though don't recollect blueberries, blackberries and raspberries and definitely not exotics such as mangos and papayas.

 

Rhubarb stalks

Have you thought about using Das or similar?

Make long rectangular strips, slightly curve and cut into strips longer than you need. At one end blend into or mould a leaf. Squash into a stump at the bottom to fix to baseboard or baseplate. What I notice on RTP rhubarb on layouts is that stalks lie flattish in a circle. What I see in our garden is that the stems are vertical and are actually hidden by the slug holed leaves.

 

You could stick it under a tin bath to 'force it' then you wouldn't have to worry at all about modelling it.

 

Nice to have this exchange, Thanks.