Bridlington & Wolds Scale Model Club Forum

Models => Modelling Projects => Topic started by: Wizzel on September 14, 2017, 03:07:44 PM

Title: BARBED WIRE
Post by: Wizzel on September 14, 2017, 03:07:44 PM
Not so much a project, I just thought I'd share with you my method for making barbed wire suitable for 1/72 dioramas which I think is very realistic. You will need; net curtain, craft knife, paints, cocktail sticks/garden wire, wire cutters, paints, pliers, scribing spike, hairspray, and a drinking straw. A desk hobby vice and helping hands magnifier is also useful. For bigger scales you could simply find some heavier net curtain and thicker garden wire.

The numbers of the pictures correspond to the paragraph numbers.

1  Find some net curtain with a suitable scale mesh in a square weave. Paint it with natural steel paint.

2  Cut as long a length of it as you will need. The ruler is used not to cut along (no good for this as the curtain is stretchy) but simply holds down the material while I cut freehand along the weave. The ruler does give an idea of the scale of the mesh though. The magnifying glass is handy here. You should aim to cut along the weave approx. halfway between the strands.

3  It should start to look like this - but IN FOCUS!!!

4  It's important to cut ALONG the weave, not across it. If you cut across, the mesh will just fall apart.

5  To make iron pickets - for a Great War diorama for example - find some garden wire of an appropriate thickness (it's cheap!) and strip the plastic off.

6  Cut a length off longer than you will need and clamp one end in a vice. Wrap it around a scribing spike and pull the free end upwards with pliers to tighten the loop - the taper on the spike allows you to adjust slightly the size of the loop.

7  To add subsequent loops, I found it easier to put the spike in the vice and then wrap the wire around as before, making sure you put the loops on alternate sides of the post, like the real thing. I think 3 loops is the usual. Once you got your loops done, snip off any excess wire above the top loop.

8  Time to get the barbed wire looking summat like. You'll need to anchor it at one end. Here I've use a cocktail stick for a wooden fence post (didn't paint it, sorry) and wrapped the barbed wire round it once then secured it with a dod of thin superglue. You then simply twist the strand which will make the stumps of the weave you cut along stick out at random angles. It's then just a case of passing it through the loops of the pickets or gluing it to the next fence post. You don't have to glue it every step of the way, as long as it's anchored at each and you don't allow it to un-twist along the way it'll keep it's barbed wire look.

9  The real stuff in a battlefield environment seldom stays looking fresh for long so I rust it up with a mix of red leather and brown of some sort.

10  Just brush it on as light or as heavy as you want.

11  To make coils of barbed wire, cut a slit in the end of a drinking straw and pop one end of the wire through it. Anchor the other end to a cocktail stick with superglue and spin the straw to wrap the wire around it.

12  Give it a blast with hairspray and wait for it to set. Depending on the type, you may need 2 or more coats.

13  When the hairspray has set, just ease the coil off the straw and gently tease it into the shape you want with tweezers. In this case, it's simply a tangle of wire that's been abandoned on the lip of a trench - or maybe I was just rushing a bit and didn't wait for the hairspray to set!!! That's all there is to it folks. Hope you find this useful.
Title: Re: BARBED WIRE
Post by: Wizzel on September 14, 2017, 03:08:18 PM
the rest of the pictures...
Title: Re: BARBED WIRE
Post by: Bigkev on September 14, 2017, 04:41:59 PM
Hi Wizzel,

That's a very good set of techniques and one I shall have a go at sometime.

Thought there was something 'different' about you last night at the meeting, now I know.....................

You were wearing 'Harmony Hairspray...........!'

Ha, ha
Bigkev
Title: Re: BARBED WIRE
Post by: Wizzel on September 15, 2017, 01:38:37 PM

You were wearing 'Harmony Hairspray...........!'

Ha, ha
Bigkev

Ah, but was I????   ;)
Title: Re: BARBED WIRE
Post by: Bigkev on September 15, 2017, 08:49:45 PM
Not a hair out of place Wizzel?

Not a hair out of place.............................?

But could you have been wearing  'Impulse'.................?

Sorry, but I had no flowers to thrust upon you.

Nice modelling technique still remains.

Bigkev

Title: Re: BARBED WIRE
Post by: Roger on September 17, 2017, 01:18:34 PM
Really good tips here, must try this.

Roger