Black Angus Cows - HO Scale

Black cattle without horns

The breed named after the Scottish county of Aberdeen is recognized at first glance: a uniformly black coat and a head entirely without horns. It was exactly being polled that made it the most widespread beef breed in North America, because the animals injure each other less in a herd and are more easily transported. On a model this quality has a practical effect: the silhouette is smooth, with no small projections, and it therefore takes being looked at from close up.

A herd, not a row of animals

The set holds cows and calves in a wide variety of positions, standing about on a pasture. Variety of position matters more with animals than with people, because a herd is seen as a whole and a repeated shape gives away at once that these are castings from one mold. The set solves this problem by its composition already and the builder does not have to resort to turning pieces around to hide the match.

Where the herd belongs

A real pasture is not evenly occupied. The animals keep near water, in the shade of a tree or along a fence, and a large part of the area stays empty. Calves tend to be near their mothers and rarely on their own. On a layout it proves good to place a few pieces so that the herd continues beyond the edge of the scene or behind a bush, because a hint of continuation makes a paddock larger than it really is. The fence is best built from thin wire; too thick a post destroys the impression of scale faster than anything else. A worn path from the watering trough to the gate of the paddock is then a small detail that gives the whole scene a piece of history.