Most farm offices have a shelf with a few die-cast models of favourite tractors or farm machines. And when Christmas approaches, the parts departments of nearly every equipment dealership begin stuffing the shelves with all kinds of farm toys and models. They make great gifts for everyone from young kids to grandpa — or maybe even grandma.
Now imagine those scale models placed on a unique, custom-built display environment that has special meaning to the recipient, perhaps placed in a diorama duplicating part of a particular farm. It’s the kind of thing that can elevate a gift of a scale model to the next level.
That’s something brothers Peter and John Comben of Saskatoon, Sask., focus on as a sideline. They operate JPS Excavating in the city, but they also run Construction Models CA.
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The Combens displayed some of their inventory and custom-built displays at the Ag in Motion farm show in July.
“This is really the first time we’ve brought them out to a show,” says Peter.
The Combens can even modify a particular model themselves to create a more accurate representation of a certain machine. “That’s something John did a lot of over in England,” says Peter. “Custom design booms and attachments, that sort of thing. We got into doing the dioramas in the last two years.”
“We’ve had good success with corporate promos, retirements, gifts or for someone who has bought a machine,” he adds.
The brothers also retail regular die-cast farm and construction models. They have even created models of machines from scratch when a commercially available model isn’t available. And when it comes to building an interesting scene to display them in, just about any type of farm diorama is possible.
“We can put models into a scene or a diorama (to display them),” adds John. “I’m always coming up with new ones to build.”
The Comben brothers can be reached by emailing [email protected] or by phoning Peter at 306-361-5943 or John at 306-291-5942.
