City Themed Art

This will be long thread so bear with me.
While looking at the nice buffalo figures the idea struck me, with what one could do with a dozen of the same exact animal figures.
In Germany (I assume they do this in US and other countries too) some cities have some kind of themed city wide art projects, where people, or companies, or groups, can buy or sponsor some kind of object, usually concrete, and paint or modify it and display it outside.
An example...
Kaiserslautern has a big fish (a carp) on their city crest. It involves a legend I dont want to get into here.
Different people and businesses have these identical fish, and they are modified.
For instance, Red Cross has a white fish with a red cross on it. An optical shop might have big wire glasses on the fish and painted in different colors. A bank, coins with euros signs. The German/American office has the German and American flag on a fish, and wings like a C-130 as Ramstein AFB is near by. A resturaunt has a fish that is just bones and a head. you get the idea.
There are big frogs in another town, and cows in another.
This is kind of a modern thing, and you would have to go to a toy store and find and object that would be to scale for your Z (or N or HO ect) town. Playmobile fish might be right size for Z, and is kind of artsy looking.
Use your imagination..
Maybe we can have some tiny Zebras..for Z scale made, and we can paint them how we want.Everyone gets as many zebras they want and we can paint them how we want. Make a contest out of it, and put them in our tiny towns. If not zebras, then somthing else? Could be inatimate object. Ear of corn? Spool of thread? Somthing that reflects the history of your town?

Please feel free to pass this info to our German Friends if thats ok! No way I will be able to translate this.

Hello Kelley,

in Hamburg it was the Hummel figure that was standing all around the city, which I remembered reading your message. While I tried to find a picture of it, I found that the idea you described seems to start in Zurich, Switzerland with the cowparade in 1998, and found followers in a lot of citys worldwide. Besides the cows there were also a lot of other sculptures used as a theme.
About the carp and Kaiserslautern (besides... is it Kaiserslautern that is meant when soldiers talk about K-Town, Western Germany?):
The carp belongs to Neustadt an der Aisch , but in Kaiserslautern it was a fish because the theme was "fishing for phantasy". The fish in the city crest is a northern pike .
I think if one would like to get any of those items the Trafofuchs would be the first to ask.

Bern has bears, and in Charleroi it are all giant comic figures. Yep, something like that would be fun on a track.

In the states, several cities-towns , have Paul Bunyion and a big blue bull, some Esso/Exxon gas stations used to have a huge plastic Tiger on the roofs ( Some ended up in the most unusual places as college pranks) "Put a Tiger in your tank" was thier advertising catch phrase. Used car dealers might have a real car up on a signpost, old derilict 40' trailers might be used as semi-mobile billboards, the Buffalo could be put on a billboard for a 3-D effect for the Buffalo Bills. The list is as long as your imagination.. Check out Route 66 and it's unusual buildings and signs.
Fred

Hi Uwe.
Thanks for the background info. Yes Kaiserslautern is known as K-town the the Americans, with Rammstein on one end and the Army in the kasernes on the other end, and of course Landstuhl hospital up the mountain.
The fish thing had somthing to do with a king or sombody throwing in a gold ring in the water and sombody caught a big fish and it was inside. I could be wrong again:P
Yes I plan on building some roadside attractions in my phantasy layout:silly: someday, or the modules.
I have 2 plastic dinasaurs that will be like the ones in the California park from the Pee Wee Herman movie. I just need to slap a truck stop together there.
There are lots of things one can use if you look around and use your imagination.. How about those plastic ants? I am not sure but I bet they scale out and could be a big bug on top of an exterminator van. Look at keychains and things you get out of bubble gum machines. If I could find a little plastic hamberger or hotdog, i could turn that into a roadside stand.
There are books out with these roadside attractions and you can find some on line. Place that sold tires had a giant laady..somthimes these things were in bikinis..Just find the N or TT figure that would work. Big Johns was a chain in Illinois that had a fiberglass giant dude holding groceries. The list is endless

Hello Kelley,

here is the story about the northern pike from Kaiserslautern. Unfortunately only in German...

Something else that came to my mind about artwork in the scenery is that since we often also have a fair amount of free landscape we could find rows or stacks of hay bales in the fields. Here in Germany nowadays you see almost only the big round bales, whereas in former times the much smaller square bales were used.

Today you will often find a figure like a snowman build out of two or three round bales at a field. Mostly with some kind of advertising for a farm restaurant or shop or something similar.

On my way to work I see this:



it shows a bundle of asparagus and a hand holding a fork with a potato. This kind of art is mostly carved from a treetrunk with a chainsaw...

Thanks Uwe..I thought it was an odd looking carp. Northern Pike=Hecht..got it..now I have been calle a "Toller Hecht" by a few ladies, but thats another fish story.

I have a tiny plastic aligator that begs to be put on a roadside alligator farm, and a lobster that would be good on a seafood place. I dont want a lot of kitch on my layout, but in the 50s-60s there was enough to see.

Fred wrote:

In the states, several cities-towns , have Paul Bunyion and a big blue bull

Portland has a statue of Paul Bunyan, appropriate for a (ex)logging state:P

www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/2557

However we don't have "Babe".

Jerry

I think the whole idea is a good one but we need to come up with something that will be seen in a photo and everyone no matter what scale they model will know that the picture is z scale. what one thing or icon just stands out and makes people say " thats Z scale"? Maybe its as simple as just a large letter "Z" as a monument or something.
Lets take Kellys idea as a challenge and come up with an item and run with it.
Steve aka. slugger"

Zebras? Zulus? Zoot Suits? Zappa?..more choices in German..Zuckerruben? Zorro? Zweiback? Zucchini? Zeppelins?

I think Zuit suits or Zappa has my vote.


Zac

(or hey maybe me) you can see my avatar picture it is a 1/6 scale toy of me.

After some more thinking on this subject, I came up with one idea that i really like. How about the symbol for "omega". omega comes from the phrase "The begining and the end, the alfa and the omega" omega means the end of any group of thingsand the letter Z stands for omega according to the dictionary.

What do you think?
Steve aka "slugger"

Hmmm I dunno..Im thinking Frat House or Sorority somthing..or the church...
Good suggestion though.