German Entry Receives Top Award in Large Scale Division

By Fred Hendricks
Note: This feature is in the Jan. TF 2017 issue.​​ 

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For the first time in the history of the diorama contest at the National Farm Toy Show, the large scale division was comprised entirely of 1/32 scale entires. Jacco van den Broek of Zeven-Aspe, Germany, placed first in this competitive division. Farm toys in 1/32 scale are the most popular among European countires. Cathy Scheibe, publisher of Toy Farmer, therefore encouraged Jacco to enter the competition with his 1/32 scale display. There were a total of four quality entires in this division.
Jacco was born and raised in the Netherlands. He is now a citizen of Germany and has no farming experience. He is emplyed as a company representative for LISEGA SE of Germany, where he works in the shipping department. He also works as an on-site service mechanic where needed. And Jacco is gluent in three languages.
When quaeried about his inspiration to build the diorama, Jacco commented, "The suitcase ruled by diorama. I had to give careful thought on what would fit into a suitcase. I wanted the theme to be a typical German or Eurpoean farm during the mid-19880s. Buildings and large combines were not possible. Heavy wood or metal would be too heavy and could cuase custom issues. But a few tractors and equipment would work just fine."
The foundation is 2-inch Styrofoam that measures 39.5-by-23.6 inches. It is in two pieces for transport in a suitcase. "On top of the Styrofoam, I began adding the detail. The diroama depicts several months in a farming operation. There are two stacks of forages covered with plastic and rubber tires. A tractor is shown hauling feed from them. A third stack is being made with a tractor and forage wagon. There is one Fendt and two Mercedes-Bentz tractors, along with forage-handling equipment of that era. At 90-100 horsepower, they were considered good-size tractos in their time," he noted.

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