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.

2 comments:

  1. Great fast project. I was doing something vaguely similar for 6mm the other day. Rather than go the scrren mesh route, I simply coiled some thin gauge wire around a paint brush handle and glued that to the uprights. Mine are more concertina than 3-strand, you see.

    BTW, the real stuff is a pain in the ass to string and tension. You WILL cut your hands to bits, even in gloves.

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  2. Cool terrain pieces and handy tutorial!

    Thanks for the information,

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