Miniature Buildings

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Farm Buildings

Some of the material in this article first appeared ( and still appears) in my piece on 1/32 scale - thanks largely to the influence of Britains toys. Although they are still produced they are not the force they were.

If you are English and building a toy farm then the Britains influence and legacy makes it almost a given. Britains themselves were, and still are to a degree, known for figures, animals, tractors and other equiment. From 2005 ownership of the farm range separated from the military figures operation.  The history of this ground-breaking company is well set out in Britains own site. They are now part of the TOMY group. over the years they have produced a number of buildings, though not very many. The main focus has been on tractors and other vehicles.

Writing on the specific farm theme was prompted by two producers, both of whom featured in MB Daily in October.

The first, from England, is Ken Bannon who produces highly detailed barn models in 1/100 scale. These are certainly not toys but serious display pieces inspired by Ken's deep interest in full size barns of all descriptions.

You can read more about his barn models on the Miniatura site and about his wider barn enthusiasm at greatbarns.org.uk. Recently Ken has been making pdf files of his card models of a range of barns available within the Mostly card and paper Facebook group

The second is from the USA. GW Knight Minature Farm Buildings of Hopkinsville Kentucky. They do not appear to have a website of their own but they do post a lot on their Facebook page.

From GW Knight Minature Farm Buildings

Their story led me to a local 'Farm Toys Store'. As a Brit I had never realised such a thing existed but apparently so in the rural US. And state Farm Toy shows. And a National Farm Toy Museum in Dyersville, Iowa. It's mostly about tractors but model buildings are also in the mix.

From the Summer Show page of the National Farm Toy Museum

Postscript: And apparently in the UK too. In October 2022 I stumbled on this publication:

I hesitate therefore a little to add the next pictures, which come from the other end of the hobby - the domestic end.  This is one built by my late father for one of my sisters.  As renovated a generation later by me for one of my daughters and now heading back to the work-table to make it fit for one of my grandchildren.

Originally built by Fred Brush

There are some other more serious producers of farm buildings on this side of the pond.  In particular Brushwood and HS Model Farms of Ireland, both of whom hold to the 1/32 scale.

Brushwood present themelves as Brushwood Toys but their models are serious stuff.  Their online catalogue includes 46 items. The next picture, taken from the Elite Toys website illustrates the Monster Cubicle Shed, which it describes thus: "Possibly the best shed in the range and definately the biggest weighing in at over 12 kilos! Four rows of cubicles offering housing for 80 cows with a connecting central passageway and covered feed area to one side. We have paid particular attention to the realistic metal cubicles with top rails and connectors, 2 x push-slide automatic slurry scrapers, wall mounted metal drinkers and a double stall automatic cow feeder station.  Be prepared for some serious fun." At £202.59 it should be.  Also shown is their silo storage set which is now discontinued.  A shame since it is such an unusual piece; not just another shed.  Brushwood - no relation to my Brush family.

Another manufacturer working in 1/32 is Woody Farm Buildings who describe themselves as "Leading manufacturer of 1.32 scale diorama farm buildings and accessories" in laser-cut board.

Woody Farm Building's 1/32 pig rearing unit - a unusual item version

They also produce a Portacabin, which is not strictly a farm building but could be a useful item if you are working in 1/32. A subject of another article In praise of 1/32.

The use of 1/32 scale for farm models produces buildings of a manageable size.   A two storey farmhouse with an overall height of, say, 30 feet is just under a foot tall. (9 metres reduces to 28cm).   With a small farmyard, a stable and a pig pen the layout can sit comfortably on a tabletop or on the living room floor.   Closely linked to farm buildings but often sold as separate ranges, appealing to a very different market, are equstrian models.  Stables of varying styles.

1/24 models from the Schleich Horse Club Range.
The colouring provides hints of what their target market might be.

If you want a more sombre model, albeit in a smaller scale you could look at the 'Delamere' stable block from Scale Model Scenery wh also offer a number of other buildings suitabe for small farm scenes.

You will also find other farm buildings in the model railway world.  My first example (featured in my Vierkantshoeve article) is in 1/87 (HO) by Belgian modeller Frans Hooyberghs of a substantial 'vierkantshoeve' (four sided farm) from an Auhagen kit with some additions of his own.

I don't include many 'Z' scale (1/220) images, probably because there are not that many models that small.  This one, of a German styled farm, is from Faller.  Z scale is one of the smallest commercially available model railway scales, introduced by Märklin in 1972.  If I were including it in a diorama I think I might want to spread the buildings out a little more and add some extra walls or fences and yards.

I know that Faller is a large and long standing (over 75 years) manufacturer of a wide range of model buildings.   And it would be impertiment of me to criticise the quality and detail of their products.  Yet I have a strange and probably unjustified aversion to them.  I think this is because they come partly coloured which tempts some (many?) modellers to place them on layouts without any further painting or weathering or bedding into the landscape where they sit, a little shiny, screaming out to the spectator that they were bought in.   Which, to be fair, is not Faller's fault.

Without realising it was Faller I bought a slighty battered and not quite complete little workshop or out-building from a bargain bin at a local model shop.  It turns out that it is the 'barn' from Faller's Farmhouse set B-276, also sold separatly as B-276/b.  The boxed kit, just of the barn, is these days offered in online auctions as a 'vintage' piece at a collectors price of $52.99 plus shipping and tax.  With a little bit of attention and a fresh paint job, to make it less shiny, it doesn't look too bad, though it's not really a barn.

Moving from plastic to card, Scalescenes offer a download kit of a farmhouse and barn in a choice of textures.  The barn model is particulary welcome.

Petite Properties also offer a farm model 'Blackberry Farm' in kit form in both 1/48 and 1/76.   Their website shows two images of it - the basic kit and a "serving suggestion" as the food industry would put it.  Their kit format/business model leaves their customers with a lot of freedom to express themselves.

Another example, in 1/25th from the Madurodam collection, is this courtyard farm Kasteel Terborgh from Limburg in the South East of the Netherlands.

Strangely the most widely available farm model is not sold for the modelling of farms at all.   La Haye Sainte farm is supplied for wargamers to re-enact the events of Waterloo.   Wellington considered the farm of La Haye Sainte a strategic point of his defensive line.  In the afternoon, Napoleon ordered an assault to the farm in order to obtain a significant outpost.  The farm was strenuously defended by Allied troops, that had fortified the buildings since the morning.  The clash was fierce and the French troops, supported by artillery, were able to conquer La Haye Sainte only in the late afternoon.  There are numerous offerings of the historic Belgian farm:

Sarissa Precision's version From US manufacturer Guardian Hobbies in 6mm (1:285) scale From Italeri in 1/72

My own contribution to this subject is a model (my own designed printed paper over a foam-sheet substructure) of a typical small North Brabant (NL) farmhouse with a small house at one end and a barn at the other.  For the most part these have now been converted into simply houses.

The files for this model are available FOC from
MiniatureBuildingSite@gmail.com

A more developed Dutch farmouse model, of 'Beemster farm' is presented by Marco Lievense of ML Scale Model Building of Gouda in the Netherlands.  I had the pleasure of meeting him at the 2025 On-TraXS exhibition in Utrecht and of seeing the model 'in the flesh'.  The underlying model is a 3D print by Bielz/3dscaleworks of Zaanstaad a little north of Amsterdam, who are a very serious producer of, mostly, Dutch railway buildings, but Marco has added a lot of his own work in the finished model.

Going almost full circle, in terms of scale, I spotted the next piece on Etsy in April 2025.  It is a 1/35 laser kit kit offered by Jana of DioramaWorld1 for €71.95 plus delivery. So not cheap. There is plenty of work to do to get from picture 1 to picture 2. But it is clear that the end product can look really good. Although the supplier is German they have chosen to model a US prototype of a farm, which is unusual.

As always, e-mail Miniature Buildings at MiniatureBuildingSite@gmail.com if you have something to add.  Comments, criticisms, errors you have spotted, extra thoughts, pictures, or even complete articles for inclusion in the Miniature Buildings site are all welcome.  Or if you would like to be added to my mailing list to hear when a new article is published.

David
November 2019
last updated April 2025