Roco the Minitanks people make a barbed wire substitute. It is some type of elastic string. Available from Walthers, my son used it for a concentration camp diorama for a Holocaust project. It looks great.
Chris Chany
Larry - I agree with you. Barbs are so small in 1:1 I imagine they would be miniscule in 1:87. In the next day or so I will work on it. I am going with square toothpicks shaved on one side to resemble a split round cedar log and use some 3 lb test line for the wire. I’ll take pics and you guys can be the judge. This is for a diorama not my actual layout so this will be a good practice run. And once again thank you for all your inputs.
Terry[8D]
I used silver and rust brown thread for the wire. Tiggr
Thanx Gary for the tips on loading pics into the replies. I will certainly give it a shot next time. That’s the beauty of these forums - there is always someone out there who can help you. Sorry to be off topic - just wanted to say thanks.
Regards from Downunder Chris
A number of wargame modelers take two strands of very fine wire and twist them together. For concertina you then wind the twisted wire around a thin pencil. Pull it out and you have a rather effective imitation of concertina. This works quite well (and rather easily) in 1:48. I have not tried it in 1:87. I have seen some lovely etched brass – dont foget to twist it!
I just posted Pics of the Diorama that needs the fencing… Titled Completed Diorama.
Terry
I know for certain, a commercial HO barbed wire was made from a strand of metal screen wire just pulled from the edge of the woven piece. Now it seems the screen wire is not metal or coated with whatever it used to be. Progress…!!
Bob T
Any ideas what to use for N scale right of way fences. In the October 07 MR there is an N scale layout in trackside photos with excellent fences.
I’m still going with the adage, “if you can see it(the wire) in HO scale, it’s too large” saves a lot of time and frustration, human hair or smaller would be about the right scale.
I have made several barbed wire fences on my HO scale layout. Although you are wanting wood post, I used small finishing nails, painted orange with a small dab of silver on the top to make metal ‘‘T’’ post, and used common sewing thread for the wire. Like was stated before, the barbs would way to big if you could see them on an HO layout. Mike
Mike, you need to fence in the other side so the moo moos don’t fall of the layout!! Great looking fence!![:D]
I use dental floss.
CHUCK
Go to thread “Gotta keep the cows in” has some nice photos and a number of ideas for both posts and fence material.
Have fun,
I have thought this many times when looking at peoples fences on layouts. In my opinion seeing modeled barbed wire fence without the corner brace does not look real at all. I laugh and shake my head everytime i c it.
If you look at a barbed wire fence from a distance in real life you cant make out the barbs very clearly but the barbs make the wire look twice as thick as it really is. So using thicker thread or whatever may be appropriate.
If someone were to give me a penny for every fencepost I have set in my life I could get out of debt in a right quick hurry.
If I recall correctly across the span of five decades fence posts averaged somewhere between four and five inches in diameter; I believe I saw an N Scale fenceline crafted from toothpicks one time and it looked respectable - I know there riogrande5761, this is an HO Scale question and I’m off topic - but I’m just afraid that an HO Scale fenceline crafted from toothpicks is going to look, as you suspect, just a mite scrawny. My grandpappy was a hardscrabble farmer in Eastern Idaho using a hand digger for his postholes and, for those of you familiar with these backbreaking contraptions, they dig a hole about six inches in diameter; NOTE: we are talking about a real posthole digger here, not one of these dinky little contraptions they rent a Home Despot; my grandpappy used posts that were about four inches set about eight inches in the ground and he hung a two strand fence of ‘bob’ along his lines; on the cow spreads up in Montana, on the other hand, they were using heavier posts - closer to five inches, I would guess, set about a foot in the ground - these postholes were about eight inches across and dug with a power augur mounted on a WWII surplus jeep; these fencelines carried three strands of ‘bob’.
I do know o
No wonder why the post toppled, any fence I helped build we usually put them in 12-16"[:D] Let me tell you when buliding fence a power digger beats the hell out of a hand digger but push’em in with the front end loader wins hands down!
gilligan, you may be correct; eight inches does seem a little bit on the shallow side; I’m not sure why that figure came to mind but twelve inches may be closer to actuality; I do know that cowmen set their posts a heck of a lot deeper than farmers, maybe closer to eighteen or twenty inches.
Posts around corrals use eight to ten inch posts set twenty-four to thirty six inches in the ground, the exact length depending on just what a particular corral is going to be used for. NOTE: yes there riogrande5761, I know that corrals do not have ‘bob’ wire and this, therefore, is off topic.
There was a good article on this in RMC in 1985.
Modeling barbed wire
Railroad Model Craftsman, May 1985 page 95
(BARBED WIRE, “BURGESS, JACK”, FENCE, RMC)
The author used .005 fishing line and a jig to tie knots into it every 24" to represent the barbs. He used square posts and drilled holes in them and used a loop of very fine wire inserted into the holes to hold the barbed wire to the posts like a staple.
I’d update his technique by using copper or brown and grey fly tying thread to represent, rusty and new wire respectively, and his jig to tie the knots into it. Fly tying thread is a lot more flexible than monofilament line.
You can get 1/16 dowels from doll house miniatures/ craft stores for round posts or scale stripwood for square ones. That way you can cut long enough pieces to bury them deep enough into your benchwork. Fence posts usually have 3’-6" to 4’-6" of post exposed. I’d want to have 3/4 or 1 actual inch below the ground.
Remember that post tops are usually cut at a slight angle for drainage.
Hi, forget all the work.
You can find “real” HO barbed wire at a french company called G.P.P.decor products.
On a photo etched sheet of 12cm x 5,5cm you have 5 meters of barbed wire!!!
It can be sent to you in an enveloppe after paying by visacard.
The reference is FB 100 fil barbelé.
The web site is :www.gpp.fr
Good modeling
Guy from Belgium
Lets make that clickable , wish I spoke French for this site: