"Barbed Wire" Topic

What's the best way to model barbed wire in 15mm? I'd like to make my own rather than purchase ready made.

Teist fine fuse wire around a slightly thicker piece of fusewire. Repeat, ad nauseum!

Some people have cut out flywire, keeping a long strand intact, with the shorter cross wires representing the barbs.

Personally I'd just buy it from eg Antenociti! link (15mm IIRC) or link

Quick 'n' easy – you can't actually see individual barbs from any distance IRL so at 15mm scale you don't need to reproduce them. We used metallic silver cord that is sold for gift tags or flower arrangements, dry brushed rust brown. Stakes were made from copper pins – these already had a loop at the top. My wife made these for me

For coils you can use a length of spring or the spiral binding from a cheap (paper!) note pad

…buying it is SO much easier ;-)

/Dee

I purchased mine from Antenociti's workshop as well, but there was a good post a couple of days ago from Snodipus on his very nice barbed wire which might be useful:

TMP link

These folks sell it too:

link

I got it from them and made these:

I hate barbed wire. Although I did just discover that braided picture hanging wire has a nice texture for barbed wire in the larger scales.

I have seen dry-brushed sewing thread used quite successfully in 15mm.

The trick is to suggest a bit of the texture that barbed wire has. A single strand of wire doesn't work as well. I wonder if un-braided strands of picture wire would have enough texture to look right? It's fine gauge and would save a lot of work.

Armaments In Miniature sells barbed wire sections. This line also includes 45 and 90 degree sections along with crushed and blown up sections. Just spray a quick black base then apply a silver or rust dry brush to highlight the coils.

These folks sell it too:

thanks for the reminder, they still havent paid us for that!

/Dee

For my 20mm games I use galvanized steel wire, such as is used for hanging framed pictures on a wall.

link

Gabriel, thanks for posting that, it looks really good! A lot of commercial stuff is over size and the wire is almost as thick as a man's wrist in scale; I bought a box of the Pegasus stuff when was on sale and it looks good, nice and thin, but is a royal pain to work with.

If you only want a small amount, or moneys no onject or if you just prefer to buy from fellow wargamers then I would also recommend th supplier given above.

If you need a lot of the wire it is far more cost efficient to buy a roll of the stuff..

If you know an electrician ask him. It's just a wire made up of one thicker core and a thiner wire spiralled around it. I think they use it for making seals for electircal meters etc.

You can get big rolls cheaply through electrical suppliers and if you know an electrician he can probably get it for you at a better price. We game on a 20ft table so need lots of wire and we have a tame electrician!

I sure want to thank all of you. Lots of good ideas. I remembered I had some picture hanging wire that's been just sitting around for years. I unbraided some down to two strands, then twisted those together and wound that around a pen. I think it makes pretty good looking barbed wire for 15mm. No actual barbs, but that doesn't seem to really hurt the look.
Some posts and a little paint is all that's needed. Cool!
Have any of you ever seen a wild electrician?

ebay item number 170875140617
This is the sort of stuff that badwargamer refers to. Be aware that it comes in different thickness so might be worth contacting before purchase.

I bought a roll a couple of years ago and it should keep me going for the rest of my natural!

Painting tip: Soak it in vinegar for a few days ….it goes all cruddy and rusty and saves on the painting

Oh yes, sealing wire – that is good stuff but you can't buy it retail where I live. Maybe it's time to go electrician hunting :)