"ACW Fence Colors" Topic

I'm trying my hand at scratch-building some snake-rail fencing, and then it hit me … I have no idea what color these things should be.

I am familiar with what exposure does to untreated wood outdoors, which is what got me thinking about this.

Grey or Brown?

I can see grey, since that is what color the wood ultimately turns. But the stone walls are going to be grey already.

I can see brown, as that is the color the wood starts, and it's nice to see wooden fences looking "wood" colored.

So those out there with fencing, which way did you go? I'm wondering if there is a concensus on this. Oh, in case it matters, these fences will be for 28mm gaming. Thanks.

Steve

Weathered wood will eventually turn grey. New wood isn't necessarily brown either. If it is fresh cut, then it would be a light tan. Think of what a two by four board from the lumber yard would look like.

There is also a possibility that the fences were white washed or treated with some sort of paint coating to prevent weathering.

Not all stone is grey – and what about moss and lichen?

Rocks are brown, tan, blackish, redish, and many shades of gray. Many rocks are partially hidden by vegetation.

My Virginia rail fences (both on the wargames table and along my driveway) are grey, often with dark streaks.

If I had fences, they would be gray. I have some weathered buildings that are gray and trees I have painted are highlighted gray (dark to light) over black primer.

I have stone walls that are varied shades of brown. I went with a Midwest US muddy Mississippi look to my stone for my ACW.

You guys are no help at all! : D

Okay, my stone walls are grey because Pegasus pre-paints them that way, and my limited hobby time would be better spent painting bare metal and plastic troops, than repainting an already painted stone wall.

picture

I do like the idea of adding just a touch of green along the bottom, perhaps some moss growing in the cracks, but that is a "To Be Done Later" project. They are painted and usable as-is right now.

And my, um … two-rail fencing (also from Pegasus, also pre-painted) is already brown:

picture

Don't see an easy way to add three more rails, so this is just going to have to do for now (and probably for a long time to come).

So I have grey stones and brown fencing. And because of all y'all, I was pushed (peer pressure) into spending some valuable hobby time trying to create some snake rail fencing. And truth be told, there is something very cool about snake rail fencing, and now that I see it EVERYWHERE in ACW photos and battle reports and tabletops, it just screams American Civil War to me. I must have some. And I'm stuck making my own with the limited funds I have.

Anyway, now you see what the snake-rail fencing will be used with. I was tempted to go brown to match the other wooden fencing, but felt like weathered grey was a more accurate color. But grey for stones and for fencing? Seems a bit much, when you consider there will already be a bunch of troops in that color as well.

Then again, I could go with the look of fresh cut lumber as Der Alte Fritz said.

Crud! I don't know, I'm no closer to a decision now than when I posted the question, but y'all are pretty much telling me that grey is the way to go. I was planning on using an actual stain or sealer on the individual pieces before assembly, but is there such a thing as a grey stain?

Graay with a wash of brown or black should give you some nice fences as well. In the deep South where I live, most old homesteads with that type of fence are not whitewashed.

If you want to stain your fences gray I have been told of a method by my model-train-building uncle.

Start by putting some steel wool in a container filled with cider vinegar. Let this sit for a few days and then strain out the steel wool residue – most of it should have disolved in the vinegar. Then make your fence rails from maple or at second choice beech or birch wood. Paint the rails with the vinager and within a few hours the wood will have turned gray.

I just make sure that I do not use the exact same shade of gray for my fences. I also include a large variety of stones, including some brown ones, in my stone fences.

Grey. Wood turns grey very quickly after being exposed to the weather. See the following thread:

TMP link

Jeff

Pick a slightly warm shade of grey (throw in a little brown or tan) for the fences. Have some that have been recently repaired and have new fresh beams to break the monotony.

Sounds like a future Osprey book.

I am 40 feet into a project build of 120 feet of scratch built snake rail fencing. I went through the same questions as you Steve. I have gone with a black undercoat ( chaos black ) , a coat of grey ( codex grey ) followed by a dry brushed coat of a lighter grey ( fortress grey ) and finally a very light drybrush on the top rail of white skull white ) . I am so pleased with the look of them that I have gone back and changed the bulk of my other fences to grey as well. I recommend you check out Bluewillow's fences. bonnieblueflag.livejournal.com

The Gettysburg battlefield recently added a lot of snake fencing. The new-cut fence was mostly tan, but it turns gray pretty quickly. OTOH, I once read an article about how much effort 19th centuy farmers had to put into maintaining their fences (about 25% of thier total labor) so at any given time there would probably be a mix of new (tan) and old (gray) fences.

I painted mine a light brown with a heavy grey drybrush.

These are my scratch built fences.
Painted medium to dark brown, drybrushed grey then drybrushed white. There are sections with a bit of green as well.

picture

picture

Thanks y'all, for the tips, background info, links, and paint choices.

I think I'm going with grey! I just need to see if I can do it with a stain of some sort (a one dip, let it dry, it's done method), rather than spraying, then drybrushing multiple layers of lighter greys (which is how I've pained stonework before – using the exact colors Houdini mentioned).

My snake-rail fencing is not "solid", at least my trial section is not. I pused a thin pin down through the matchsticks where they overlap, and glued the pin to a separate small piece at the bottom. So my snake fencing can be bent at every juncture. It can be straight, it can bend around a road, etc. There is no "base" you place the fencing right on the terrain mat tabletop.

My limited, careful bending has shown it to be durable. I haven't yet bent it back and forth 50 times fast to see if it will come apart or anything, but when I sat down to prototype my first piece, it seemed cool to have sections I could make whatever shapes I wanted, rather than a bunch of individual smaller pieces. I may have to ditch this and go for the more traditional sections, in which case painting will be fine.

But for bendable fencing, I don't think painting will work, unless (a) you paint each board before assembly, and (b) you don't mind paint rubbing off. I figure a stain will absorb into the wood, and not rub off (much) when bent.

At least that is my plan.

120 feet of this? YIKERS!

This is a good site. I followed their 'build it yourself' instructions when I made my fences. I used wooden tooth picks.

splitrail.com/trad.html

Fences made with sawn lumber would often be white-washed. I doubt, tho, if snake-rail fences were.

Blankfrank,

I would not use the "traditional" style fences for the ACW. Just use the 'normal' snake rail fencing which they call "battlefield". I don't know which you used.

About 40 something years ago I had to put up 200 yards of post and rail fencing with my Dad. It was a nightmare! We had NO power tools so we used a shovel and a post hole digger. The 'normal' "battlefield" style fencing requires no post holes like that site shows with the "traditional" style. If you are a farmer you ain't going to dig thousands of post holes to surround acres and acres of fields, believe me. Just laying rails on top of one another is the way to go and no cow is going to knock them over easily unless they get spooked and they won't spook easily in the middle of nowhere.

Putting up fencing without power tools is NOT fun. Post and rail fences are not fun. It was invented by the devil. Splitting rails is NOT fun. Any way to make it easier and quicker is the way to go. Getting some idiot to put up any fence for you is the way to go.