ACW Fences

[Shandy]

Hi!

I just finished almost three meters of snake rail fences for my 15mm ACW project. They were made out of matchsticks (those sold for crafting without the ‘heads’):

For a detailed description and more images, visit https://wargamingraft.wordpress.com/2015/10/09/acw-terrain-i-fences/

Cheers!

My blog: http://wargamingraft.wordpress.com

[Otto Schmidt]

Dear Shandy

Not bad!  How robust will they be? With 15mm it should be oK. The problem I found with fences was they get tattered and ratty from storage and moving about.

My method is to use 12 guage  wire from electrical cables with the insulation stripped off. This comes in perfectly round stock and it’s flexable. What I do is cut off a short piece about 3/4″ to an inch long and drill into a piece of luan plywood and affix it in the hole with epoxy. Then between the posts I’ll tie on with thread, longer, about three inch lengths of the same wire (I game in 30mm).  Once I have the rails the way I want them I bursh epoxy over the thread  to secure them. Once this dries and is painted it forms an immensely strong construction that will stand up to years of use and abuse.

Copper can be expensive these days. Still for the hobby…. I got a lot of mine over 40 years ago when I was working in this one plant which was at one point rewiring some of the huge industrial machinery they had.  Left all over the floor were five inch lengths of cut off ends of wire the contractors had left.  A lot of it was the bare “grounding” wire and did not need to be stripped.  I mention this because if you keep an eye out you can find materials for modeling almost everywhere.   For example in one place I worked, the Marketing Department was cleaning out their files and was throwing away hundreds of production artwork for folding cartons, displays, boxes, and advertisements.  All of it was mounted on sturdy Bristol Board  or SBS plate , some of it  two by three feet in size. Excellent for stands, buildings, construction of anything.  Gobbled it all up. I’m just getting to the end of the pile now 25 years later.

Otto

[malc johnston]

Some sound tips Otto

Willyoupleasehelpmefixmykeyboard?Thespacebarisbroken!

[Bandit]

I use toothpicks because I find that with 15mm figures matchsticks are way too thick of look for my preference (being wider than the limbs on some figures). My oldest toothpick fences are only about 25 year old but they continue to hold up.

Cheers,

The Bandit

[malc johnston]

Another good method Bandit, maybe a shave on the toothpicks with a sharp knife might add to the effect, but yea i can see that toothpicks could work well.

Shandy, the matchstick effect do look good though, and you have done a good job with the base and colours, it looks the part.

Malc

Willyoupleasehelpmefixmykeyboard?Thespacebarisbroken!

[Author]

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