Barbed Wire Compound

    Two boxes worth of Monster Fight Club's Chain Link Fences (bought locally at Guardtower East)

When I was creating my 28mm urban terrain, I scratch-built a bunch of chain link fence sections. To be honest, I was never very thrilled with them. The styrene tubes I used as the aluminum poles and the "granny grate" plastic material for the fence looked okay. They were a little over-scale, though, and their construction looked clunky. So, when I saw Monster Fight Club's scenery pack of Chain Link Fences, I snatched up two boxes of them right away. I felt these would look much more realistic, plus they'd be able to be use as a barbed wire compound.

    The box from Monster Fight Club, which contains 10 sections that each measure roughly 5" long

Since it's me, though, I couldn't resist modifying them a bit. They come with these strange, brick-like, rectangular pieces that the poles fit into to stand upright. The picture on the box also shows them being used at the top to "clip" sections together. I didn't like the way that looked nor they way it elevated the fence off the ground. Wouldn't an elevated fence allow unwanted visitors to slip underneath? So, I decided to snip off all of the bottoms of all the vertical poles. Since these are soft plastic, that was easy enough to do with wire cutters and an X-acto knife.

    One of the unpainted sections - not the poles projecting from the bottom which I trimmed away

Each section measures roughly 5" long, so I cut thin styrene bases for them that were just a tad longer. I had to figure out a way, though, to make sure I glued them perpendicular to the ground. Otherwise, my fences would be leaning this way and that. Keeping them upright was the job of the now-discarded "brick clips." And with 20 sections total, even a small bit of lean would end up looking pretty topsy-turvy the longer the fence line grew. I decided to sandwich each section firmly between two square rods of bass wood. I would shave these into a triangular shape with an X-acto knife to allow the ground to slope from the fence to the base. The sides squeezing the fence section and the side in contact with the base remained a true 90 degrees, hopefully keeping them perpendicular.

    A view of my barbed wire fence sections set up as an abandoned military base for my next game

I slathered the styrene base with 5 minute, two part epoxy and then placed the fence section between the two bass wood rods and held them into place while it hardened. This did a good job of affixing them upright to their bases. It was somewhat time consuming, what with trimming the bass wood square rods, and epoxying them essentially in batches of two or three. It also provided a nicer look, I feel, with the fence actually set into the ground rather than above it. I flocked the sloped rods and bases naturally, which allow the fences and bases to "disappear" onto the tabletop.

    F Troop investigates one of the damaged sections - what could have forced open the metal fence?

I took three sections, cut them in half, and converted them into damaged sections. I also created a gate piece sitting on scratch-built rollers. Half of the damaged sections were made to look like the chain had been cut and the horizontal tubes bent inwards. The other sections I used an X-acto knife to cut one horizontal section of chain and bend it down (as if someone had cut the wire and broken into the compound). Even without the damaged sections, two boxes of the fences provided almost eight linear feet of fencing. So, I had enough for a fairly big compound!

    The rolling gate created from one half of a section, with scratch-built rubber wheels (beads)

How to paint them, though? I decided I would spray them black first with Krylon matte black. I did it at several angles to ensure I got all of it. I didn't want any gray plastic peeking through! I also didn't want to have to do any brushwork on these, figuring it would be a time-consuming mess! After they dried, I used a can of spray silver that looked fairly "aluminum" like. I tried to spray lightly from the top so that some black would show as shadow. I'm not sure there's much shadow, though, and the fences look fairly silver. To tone that down a bit, I went over the horizontal and vertical poles with a dark, black wash. This did a great job of weathering the look, and I am happy with the final color of the fencing.

    The color came out okay - black spray paint with a dull silver spray over top and black wash on poles

The vertical poles are topped by angled pieces of metal which are obviously meant to be strung with barbed wire, in real life. Monster Fight Club did not sculpt any wire, but did have three shallow indentations where the wire could be strung for enterprising modelers. I decided to be one of those, but what material to use? I ended up going with braided, silver thread. The twisted strands of the thread catch the light at different angles and make it sparkle. I thought this would give the visual effect of the tiny barbs on the wire.

    I like how the silver thread is strung somewhat loosely and irregularly (or cut in damaged parts)

Stringing the thread onto each section was probably the most fiddly part of the entire build. I decided to use a drop of superglue on each indentation to hold it. I was afraid Tacky Glue might dry white, so I went with superglue. First, I cut each strand of wire so that there would be about an inch extra left over to trim off. Then, I glued the three strands to only the left-most pole. Once it had hardened, I put the drops of superglue onto the the other three poles and stretched it across into place. I wanted to be able to pull it relatively tight, so it needed to be affixed firmly to the left-hand pole (if this description makes sense). Since the thread in wound around a spool, it would try to bend back upon itself. However, the superglue minimized this movement, and instead it made it look like irregular slack spaces in the barbed wire. I felt this actually added to the realism.

    You can see the twisted "braiding" in the silver thread that catches the light and gives it a sparkle

Although VERY fiddly, I think the simulated barbed wire really makes these "pop" on the tabletop. I would recommend anyone picking these up to also get a roll of braided silver thread (or raid your wife's sewing kit). The thread was only about $6 with an online coupon at Joanne's Fabrics, if you have to scrounge your own. One final note -- I did all of my clear coating of the fences (and flocking) BEFORE affixing the wire. I didn't want to take a chance that my Dullcoate would take away any of the thread's sparkle.

    I'm really happy with the chain link fence sections and highly recommend them!

I am really happy with how these fences turned out, and will be using them this weekend in my next Post-Apocalyptic game. Stay tuned as the survivor gangs investigate the abandoned military base and try to piece together clues on what happened to the force that had been stationed there...!