Hi,
I would like to add some barbed wire to my 1/35th scale M114A1 155mm Howitzer (Vietnam) diorama but not sure what type to go for.
I've been doing a little research into various manufacturers offerings & realised that there are several types of barbed wire, from WWI, WWII & on up to modern styles.
So, what type do I need for a Vietnam setting? And who makes a quality AM kit?
Also, should this be displayed rolled or stretched out? And how was it secured? Were stakes used & if so, metal or wood?
Thanks for your help.

Joe.

Taking a leap here, I would venture to say to make it yourself. Even if a quality AM kit is available I think a better result will be to your benefit.

A thin wire that when bent to shape will stay to keep in place and there are several examples of images to choose from.

Here are a just a few on-line:

http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1T4ADBR_enUS278US280&q=barbed+wire+on+a+M114A1+Howitzer+(Vietnam)&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=KoLcT66GGqOA2wXYopHSDQ&biw=1024&bih=516&sei=L4LcT8Y54pLZBY_hvdUN#um=1&hl=en&rlz=1T4ADBR_enUS278US280&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=1%2F35th+scale+barbed+wire&oq=1%2F35th+scale+barbed+wire&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=img.12...60813.70266.0.71953.20.20.0.0.0.0.172.2514.1j18.19.0...0.0.rcKiqb0Yh5A&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=82b087f5ac547c6e&biw=1024&bih=516

Just my opinion.








~ Jeff

Joe,

You'll find Vietnam era wire is the old 2 strand with barbs coiled into it stuff from ww1&2, and steel starpickets where used to set it up.

You can buy aftermarket wire, but to do any type of wire "fortification" it would be outlandishly expensive.

A good facsimile can be made by sticking two pencils in a foam board about 6 inches apart, tightly stringing some fine copper wire between the pencils, coating it with brown paint and giving it a "twang".

We used to do 2 basic types of wire (with variations on the theme) - Catwire - rolls of wire bounced out, placed on top of each other, and picketed with 5 foot star pickets, or Bastard wire - single strands crisscrossed on 2 foot pickets, laid at ankle / shin height. I'll try and find you some more info, but my google fu is failing me at the moment...Stay tuned

Shane

Joe,

What you want is one or more rows of triple-standard concertina fencing with or without tangle-foot on the enemy side.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/48919935/Triple-Standard-Concertina-Fence

http://www.tpub.com/seabee/5-1.htm

The standards in the US military (all branches) for laying out and constructing the triple-standard concerina fence were exactly the same in Vietnam as are used today.

You can use either screw pickets or green u-shaped pickets (posts),but the U-shaped pickets were the most commone (and still are) in use by US forces in Vietnam. Wooden posts would only have been used for gates and maybe for some field expedient fencing.

The concertina wire used by US forces in RVN was mostly the steel-tape variety (also known as razor wire, etc) and not coiled barbed wire, however, standard barbed wire is used for tabgle-foot and to anchor the pickets and fence.

(Keep in mind that the US Army in Vietnam was very well supplied - concertina and pickets were delivered literally in tons and tons.)

http://www.barbedtapewire.com/barbed-tape-barbed-wire/razor-barbed-tape-wire/cross-razor-barbed-tape.htm

I think there are several AM companies that make PE barbed tape type wire. Be sure to tone down and dull the color from the bright silver stainless steel to a duller galvanized grayish color. Too many model builders use the stuff new as cut from the PE fret and it looks too bright and toy-like. Also, keep in mind that the real coils of concertina wire were 38" in diameter (~1 meter), so don't make your coils too small (as is also very common on models).

Actual barbed-tape used by the US Army is painted at the factory in a dull brownish khaki color, but I'm not sure if this was common during the Vietnam war.

You can Google the terms:

Triple-standard Concertina Wire

Barbed Tape Concertina Wire

Razor Wire

Also search Google images using the same terms. You'll get a zillion pics of the real stuff to go by.

Make your scale model fence right and you'll keep those 1/35th sized VC out of your firebase. Do it wrong, and there'll be a 1/35th scale Command Sergeant Major giving you a tiny a** chewing! ;-)

HTH,

Joe,
depending on your time frame you have in mind, it could be either razor wire (originally called German Barbed Wire) or the generic stuff we normally see all the time.

In the summer of 1968 we started getting the new German stuff (actually made in Germany). Yet we were still getting the old stuff as well. One thing you need to remember is that the wire will be out away from the muzzel blast. Otherwise you get to restring it every morning

We drove engineer's stakes right thru the middle of the wire and had one every ten feet or so to help keep it errect. Then we tied tin cans with rocks on the wire (lots of them). Then we tied trip flares to the stakes with a double wire setup. Some unites had grenades wired in there as well, but we didn't. My main base camp had three rows of wire about a 150 feet apart. There were a lot of mines between the outter row and the middle row, and Claymoores allover the place out there. Just inside the middle row were several rows of foo gas buried slightly under the surface. There was also one rown just outside the middle row. These rows were about forty feet long, and there were many of them.

On mountain tops we just used barbed wire and lots and lots of claymoores. Some were mechanicals and some were hand detonated. Often there would be three or fours rows of barb wire very close together with a lot of trip flares in there. We never used land mines out on small ops, and don't remember ever being issued any. Remember to always have you claymoores setup with somekind of a back blast deflector or out far enought that your out of danger from it. The blast is very nasty!
gary