Farm Horizons
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Aug. 8, 2016
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Page 16
Local man creates working,
old-time farm replicas
BY CALEB SEBORA
Ken Sunderland of Winsted began creating miniature
replicas of farm equipment in 1993, a few years before
he retired. Over the course of the more than 20 years
that he has been building his replicas, mainly threshing
machines and tractors, Sunderland has put in thousands
of hours of work and has used thousands of different
pieces to build them.
Sunderland, however, did not spend his life working
on a farm (though he did grow up on one) – he worked
on airplanes.
“I worked for Northwest Airlines [now Delta Air
Lines] as a mechanic,” recalled Sunderland. “I got my
pilot’s license, but never flew commercially.”
With memories of his upbringing on the farm, along
with his skills as a mechanic, Sunderland decided to try
his hand at building replicas of different farm equipment.
So, over the course of 23 years, Sunderland has been
building his collection of farm equipment replicas.
Time and commitment
The pieces that Sunderland makes don’t just happen
overnight – they take countless hours of detail-oriented
work. Made from either metal or wood, every piece of
The first step in creating a miniature farm equipment
replica, for John Sunderland, is to draw the plan. Here,
Sunderland has scaled down a threshing machine to 1/8
of its actual size in the drawing.
PHOTO BY CALEB SEBORA