Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Cyclone Fencing

Time to tackle one of the last type of wire barrier fences, cyclone Fencing. So, I did a proof of concept work up on it, then topped it for most modern uses.

Here on the left is the cyclone fence without closer spacing of poles and overhead poles, but enough to get the concept. I did this one with the left of scrap, otherwise I would have cut the mesh on a 45 degree bias to get a diamond pattern for the fence, which is what I plan to do for the actual pieces I will make. The picture on the right shows the coiled concertina wire rolled smaller and attached to the top line. Another version of top wire would be an L or V shape leaning out or both ways that would have single strands of barb wire strung along them.

Friday, August 27, 2010

ARG! Wheres all the STUFF come from

So busy building the T 28, concertina barriers et al and finally stopped and looked around the Cargo Bay hobby room;

So when the heck did all the clutter creep in, basically un-noticed?????? Grrrr there goes couple of hours to get out the whip and chair and chase it all back where it should be!!

Though, I can take a small comfort in that I am probably not alone in this type of situation....... :)

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Concertina Wire Barriers

After making good looking barbed wire fences it was time to tackle Concertina wire barriers. I looked at various ways of making it, from multi strand twisted wire, clipped and shaped to two strands wrapped together with a heavier wire and thinner wire. They just didn't quite satisfy. So time to experiment and get some sort of fast production method.
This was a picture of a wire entanglement type that I saw at Terragenesis web site, lots of good stuff there, everyone should visit it! Even painted it looks sort of PG rated as far as dangerous looking. Sturdiness of such thin wire for this project was going to require it be mounted on bases and stored / transported in strong containers. But it needs pointy bits!

Basic materials are pictured on the left. Very thin floral wire and plastic screen window mesh. The mesh has Really strong fibers in it, trimming off long single strands was a really pain, slow tedious cutting. Have to work on how to cut it faster but the over view of the plastic mesh is that its not perfectly laid out during manufacture and is a tiny bit wavy, though not enough to see with the eye, but put a straight edge on it and its apparent.

Picture on the right shows single strands cut, shorter pieces can be used, but longer is way better for the construction process I'll cover. Picture on the right, not the best but the strand is Hot Glued to the end of the wire. I smeared about half an inch together with a glob on the end, it can be cut off later.

Yep, that's a cordless power drill with the connected strand / wire clamped in the end. Next step takes some practice to get it right. Use some short pieces, oh, about 12 inches to practice with. As you hold the trigger to a slow speed, as it turns, you let the strand Wrap around the wire. See below of figuring out how long your Wire should be for your barrier piece. To start the assembly for the completed wire, the  strand hangs down under my thumb. You have to get a lot of coverage as pictured, or when you form the large loops later some of the tight wrap loosens up and gaps enough to be visibly annoying. Cost of materials is extremely cheap per piece so if it breaks or does not come out right, toss it and after a few tries it starts working out very well. I had to stop 4 times to get another piece of strand material, each was about 4 feet long, and hot glued it to the end of the juncture of the last strand where it ended on the wire. Hot glue the end of the strand and wire together when the full length of the wire is done. Onwards!

That's a half inch wooden dowel in the bit of the cordless drill. The line on the dowel is the length of the barrier piece I want to make. I ran out a LONG piece of wire and hot glued it to the line on the dowel. Slow power and guide the wire wrapped it around the shaft. When it looked good and reached the end of the dowel I stopped, and Unwound it from the shaft, that is how I established how much wire to make the size barrier piece I wanted. This part is a bit of order, but trying to give a linear explanation to my intuitive creativity process can trip me up at times! Anyway, the combined strand / wire is hot glued to the wooden dowel at the drawn on line and Slowly powered up and fed onto the wood dowel. The picture on the right shows the finished project, click the picture to enlarge and see all the spiky goodness! At this point a couple small wipes of hot glue or some super glue here and there to hold the strands to the wire is a good idea. I use wide 6 inch long Popsicle sticks for the bases, I'll post some finished photos later.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Wire Fence changes

After tinkering with the fence assembly I learned that leaving some "wire" sticking off both sides, then trimming them to the end of the base rather than cut them off at the post, lets them sit together with the wires seemingly touching. Also, when spinning the base while holding the first attachment point of the wire, you need to make sure to spin many many times till it starts to knot up. Then stop spinning and carefully pull it straight across the poles and hold with one hand. Gets tricky to hold the taught wire in place with one hand and hot glue with the other, but WAIT!  Get that dab of hot glue on the post and wire, then put the glue gun down quickly, and carefully stretch the wire straight out and let cool. If you don't it will cool bent back around the post. When its cooled off you can get the middle posts hot glued easily.

The left picture shows how the ends meet up between the bases so that you do not have a series of "gaps" in the wire. Its a bit more visually pleasing overall I think. The picture on the right is the wire with a fast paint brush drag of gun metal paint over it.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Barbed Wire Fence


Need fencing for my western games, any field that is in the 1900's U.S. actually. Looking up various ways to go about it I hit on the following:
Using Big Popsicle sticks, cut down round wood tooth picks and hot glue. I smeared the spots for the fence posts first with the hot glue. The I smeared it onto the bottom quarter of the pegs, ending with a small glob on the bottom of the peg. I quickly tapped it and moved it about on the wood base, finally holding it still to cool standing up as shown in the picture on the right. Being a fast build project I put on a bit of texture and sprayed the whole assembly light green. Next came a quick PVA treatment to the "ground" followed by flocking. Let it dry for a few hours while doing yard work.

I cut long strips from plastic window screening, carefully removing every other long line, so to leave lots of visible "points" on a single strand. I got 4 feet by 5.5 feet for $4.45, the smallest amount I could buy, the box store did not sell it by the foot, as I really only needed about 6 inches of the roll to be in supply for ever!

Next step, hot glue the end of the strand to the first peg in the direction that it will finish up. Now, the trick to get lots and Lots of turns of the wire so as to make the spikes stick out in all directions, I dangled the base by the end of the strand and spun the base round and round till it got some shorter from all the twists. Hot glue it to the last peg, then press and hold as you hot glue the middle pegs. Last picture on the right with a 28mm colonial, shows the before strands in the back and the finished 3 strand fence in the front.  The base can have weeds added as well as small rocks and what have you. I have worked up 10 sticks, each is a bit over 6 inches long, as well as 3 sticks with a peg knocked down for switching when the fence gets drive over by cattle or vehicles.

2nd American Civil War, California Report

So, the Stalinist forces attempted to cut off the supplies flowing to the Trotsky faction and their current allies was fought out in the grand manner with massed forces assembled and launched into the fray. The Trotsky forces held the supply depot in a secluded hill redoubt, the Stalinist forces could enter along the far edge or the road way in the upper right of the first picture. There was no easy retreat paths from the supply depot, which was shortly called the supply dump. Those evil Stalinist forces quickly started bantering back and forth the need to get the supplies from anywhere or anyone, hence, the cry of Take A Dump was heralded. It was pointed out that the only outhouse on the field was in the depot, further fueling the need to get there as fast as possible.
Supply Dump in the Hills
Stalinist Forces advance
Left Flank Stalinist Cavalry sent packing
As the Stalinist advanced across the wide front, their Cavalry thundered along their extreme left and was the first to pass the central hills area, only to be met with a hail of gunfire from the local militia unit that had held to cover there. Other nationalist forces were also deployed in the central hilly area. An artillery duel ended in the Trotsky favor as their 2 guns destroyed the single gun opposing them. They then turned their attention to other targets, taking out a command truck then pounding infantry with their direct fire.
Trotsky Right Flank deploying
Stalinist Forces push the central hill
Political Officers Truck smoked
Valiant Tank support rolls forth
Overview of the battlefield
Artillery pounds the Stalinist Advance
Police Commissioner Preps Paperwork for arrests
Brotherhood Co-op force and AT rifle group
Some of my units never had an enemy unit get close enough to fire, Sniper, Co-op unit and the AT rifle unit that had waited to take out a vehicle coming around the corner. Then again, 4th battle that my forces have not suffered a KIA! Also memorable was that I did not use my terror inspiring Artillery! Take that you constitutionalists!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Battlefield Needful Items

The number of figures in our ACW2 games, what with 8 to 10 players all fielding 3 to 6 units each has put a strain on needful items, so I spent a couple of hours and whipped out 10 3" craters, 16 turn encounter chips (grassed on one side and red painted on the other) along with 12 smoke columns.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Done as its Going to be

Added on rear deck metal segmented dirt deflector grid over the engine, Front co-axial machine gun bullet deflector, storage boxes, jack and tow cables, turret access hatches for machine gun turrets, bit of spare track, deflector exhaust elbows to the ends of the muffler, the bogie plate cover has the dividing line and hinges that allowed sets of bogie's to be exposed for servicing. Enough!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Its Got Paint

Another shot, orange and multi colors gone:

T 28, 28mm scale

Its got Treads

Here we go, creeping up on painting, head lights, some other gee gaws to attach and then prime it all up in time for our next game.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

T 28 Update

16 bogie's per side... all tiny.... all hair pulling.... Found some passable buttons to fill in for the way to many that I need.

Here I have the wheels assembled and built into the side board as on the real tank. The stick on the Fender area is just to show spacing of the Track width to be as it were. Fender and treads are being nicked from a Stg III tank model. 76mm cannon mounted as are machine guns in the forward turrets, the coaxial machine gun is mounted but on the opposite side from the viewing angle.


Thursday, August 5, 2010

American Civil War 2, Foreign Lend Lease

So my forces in an ACW2 campaign gathered enough points to get a real Tank! Mahahaha... er, now to find a tank with larger than 37mm, preferably 75mm or larger, not just a proto type, around for a few years and exported to other countries so I can justify "getting" one.

Settled on T 28, 76mm cannon, 3 or 4 Mgs, if you include one for the top turret access hatch. Moderate armor and road speed, was exported, saw action in the Spanish civil war and sent to Turkey. Now.. search for one suitable in size for 25-28mm figures and not cost tons..... grrrr ...

So settled on Kit bashing one from a Stg III model for track and bogie's... lots of bogie's...
So on the left is a photo reduced track assembly picture I am using to guide assembly of the tank wheels and tracks. On the right is the wooden body assembled and first coated with Kel Seal. I let the Kel Seal dry and then use a new xacto blade to trim off the bumps and such. The 2 small turrets are upside down at the moment for the shot, the mounting pins are freshly glued in. Still have to shape the small turrets some. Kaptain Kneemo's Shipboard marines are showing a little progress on further painting. The hull of the tank is raised on a bit of wood scrap to show the approximate height of the finished tank. Scale here is 1 inch = 5 feet for the record.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Pirate Fest Campout

A bit ago the wife and I attended the Pirate Fest camp out along with alot of friends of course. So here's a shot of each of us dontcha know! ARRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Deb was pondering snatching the chocolate chip cookies while the fellow pirate was distracted by a board game, and I was pondering which offer to take, a shot of spiced rum or a double shot!