I grew up on a Dairy farm in upstate NY and certainly did my share of Cedar post/barbed wire repair. I have a dairy farm on my diorama that I need to fence in. I read somewhere that toothpicks would work. I guess the round ones would but not sure how good they would look. Anyone out there “been there done that”? What are you folks using for round fence posts? Tks for the help. Oh yea, while i’m on the subject…how about the barbed wire. I was thinking of fine fishing line??? Any ideas on that?
Terry[8D]
I used to own beef cattle years ago and we used locust and other hardwood posts we cut ourselves, spliting them in quarters, so I think for fence posts, both round and the flat tooth picks should work, just use the thinner ends of flat picks. Paint them a grayish color as they age quickly and leave some unpainted like new posts, fishline should do fine, paint it aluminum (new)and some brown(old) and super glue to posts after you glue them to layout. Don’t forget corner braces and a leaner or two.
I did a long discussion on this subject a year ago. I decided for spit cedar fence posts, the non-round picks were the best. For full log posts the round were the best. Pre-stain of course.
I did not find any barbed wire that looked good. Fish line seemed the best, but I didn’t like it enough to use it, thus I don’t have a fence around my hunting scene yet. I hope you can find something with this thread, for I am waiting with you for the answer.
I use small brass wire and solder stripped #22 wire to it …I use a jig built from balsa wood glued to a piece of plywood to keep the spacing even, then for the barbs, wet the wire down with some CA glue and sprinkle ground foam or small metal filings on the wire for the barbed effect , let it dry and paint it with floquils, “rust”…here’s some pics of the fence…chuck
Tks for the input folks. CW - Thats a novel idea you have using wire. Pics look good. Anymore ideas out there.
Terry[8D]
Toothpicks are too thick in HO, and scale out to almost 8" wide. We never used more that 4" posts on my family’s horse farm, even in the stud pens. Most ROW property line fences around here (northern IL) are just that: property boundary markers, and aren’t there to actually keep anything in. Most of the posts I’ve seen are simple T-posts with three strand, or 3"-4" wood posts with hog wire and one barbed wire strand.
Round basswood is cheap enough at Hobby Lobby, so why don’t you use the thinnest stuff you can find there for posts? As for wire, I generally use 5 pound fishing line, which is a little thick. If you can find motor wire that’s not bent to heck (38 AGW?) that might be good enough to properly scale down to HO barbed wire.
I’ve seen 1/72 scale barbed wire at a hobby shop that specialized in military models.
Here’s some proof of concept wire I made a year ago from fine wire from an ethernet cable and some ca to keep the barbs in place. Shown with a HO “fatman” for scale. Wrap the wire around a nail and twist it. Twist on the barbs and ca them. Later trim the barbs to length. Fred
At fence corners, old railroad ties are often used for the corner post and the first post out in either direction. Then a spreader is placed between the corner posts and a brace wire is run from the bottom of the corner post up to near the top of the first post in. This brace wire is then tightened to create a rigid corner so that the fence can be stretched.
At least that’s how I was taught to build a fence in southern Indiana.
So you could use railroad ties at the corners. But using scale RR ties this way will certainly point out the fact that round toothpicks really are too big to use as intermediate posts in HO to look right, as these posts are typically smaller than the ties used for corner posts. The 4" post that was mentioned earlier is typical when using wood posts, except at the corners as I’ve described.
Also, many fences use steel fence posts. I don’t know what the smallest piece of T shape material that can be found, but if it’s small enough, that could also work in HO, but more likely in S or O.
In Kansas, you can still see a few stone corner posts, but this is a prototype with only limited application. It might work if you’re a Santa Fe fan, for instance.
And barbed wire is going to be a tough call in HO, no matter what you do. Woven wire is a little easier, but still tough to get looking right in HO.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Here’s mine (from an etched brass fret produced by Brit Compant, Scale Link)
Jon
Hi Jon,
Now that’s the ticket!
I searched around and found this link:
http://www.scalelink.co.uk/acatalog/Scalelink_General___Scale_1_76__OO__Varieuse_15.html
Lots of other cool stuff, too. Ladders, weather vanes, trusses, and brackets all look interesting to me. Thanks for the tip.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
I used some phone wire for fence posts and window screening for a fence, then i took some phone wire and wrapped it around a small screw driver for barbed wire, here is a pic…
Thanks for finding the link Mike.
Jon
Hi, I am from the Land Downunder and I use fine winding wire from old relays for the strands and a heaver wire from old electric motors for the posts,as for the top strand wind the fine wire around a small diameter length of stiff wire with the coils close together,pull off lay on a smooth table top,run a small roller along one way to flatten,then gently pull out leaving a kink in the wire,starting from one end wrap it around the posts use a spot of super glue and thats it!
By the way I model in “N” Gauge
Regards,Ledzeplyn.
Thanks for all the info and ideas folks. My neighbor is a Fishing Guide and he gave me some 3lb test fishing line. I think I will give that a shot and see what it looks like.
Terry[8D]
These are really great and creative ideas. Makes me want to add some barbwire on my layout ASAP!
Bob…
Here’s an HO Alloy Forms gate with metallic sewing thread for the barbed wire. The Scale Link material looks great (I have the fret) but it is not cheap. The thread actually has no barbs, but it looks like it does and 165 yards of it cost me about $4.
Ron Ferrel
Pocatello, ID
Hi from Australia,
For fencing I use scale 4"x4" styrene for the posts which works pretty well when it is painted up. For the barbed wire I use grey cotton which I attach with some CA glue. I paint the cotton first with some thin acrylic paint which fluffs up the cotton a bit and creates little barbs. Its not absolutely perfect but looks pretty good and it’s very cheap. I would show you some pics but I still haven’t worked out how to add them to a reply.
Regards from Downunder
Just wondering, in HO scale would you really notice the barbs on the wire??? They are not that large in real life.
Larry
It’s easy Chris. First you need a web site to upload your photos. I use VillagePhoto.com. It’s free.
Next, find the icon for adding an image in the “Post New Reply” tool bar (not the quick reply). You should see a code. It looks like [img.][./img] (without the periods). You can also type the code, but try the icon first to understand what I’m referring to.
Finally copy the URL address of the photo and paste between the brackets
]http:// whatever.jpg[
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