New Frontiers Alumni turns hobby into business
14 January 2022
By Jodie Gilpin
Liam Kenny has turned his hobby of making scaled model farm machinery into a business and is now shipping his creations across the world.
Liam, who grew up on a suckler and beef farm in Labasheeda, Ennis, Co Clare, graduated with a degree in product design and technology in 2013. Having always had an interest in agricultural models, he tried his hand at making some.“I grew up appreciating models and I had a great interest in how they were designed and created.
“So I bought a 3D printer and started printing miniature water troughs, like the JFC models.”Liam began making his models to scale, measuring the real-life thing and then scaling it to his desired size. He says that although it just started as a hobby, he soon realised that there was a demand for what he was doing.
“My cousin was building a model farm shed with pieces he had collected, and he asked me if I could try to make him some feed barriers for it,” he says. “I made him a 1-32 scale feed barrier and I realised that there was probably a market for this kind of thing. My family have always been into models and when I made the feed barriers and they turned out well, I started making a few more.” headtopics.com
Liam went on to make his first 1-32 scale, full metal hay bob after measuring up a real one at home and when he had built up a small collection, he made a Facebook page to display his work.“It all took off from there. I posted a few pictures of models I’d made and soon I was getting messages asking me to make more of what I’d shown and to make custom designs for collectors,” he says.
“I started making model oil tanks and agricultural accessories and focused on making a small batch of the hay bobs that I’d been making because there seemed to be a good demand for them.”Liam began attending model shows with his products where he met “a huge number of enthusiasts”, opening up a wider customer base. He says that although he and his family had always been interested in model farm machinery, he was still surprised at just how many others were too.
“The model community on Facebook is huge. There’s thousands of people really into model farm machinery. I’ve found that Facebook has been a great way of building product and brand awareness. Instagram is geared more towards other types of design businesses,” he says.
