I'm creating a Battle of Hue diorama and I got a house (French colonial looking thing) with balconies and want to put metal railing on them, but would like to scratch build them instead of buy them. I've thought about using wire and solder pieces to make it, but I've never soldered before (first time for everything though). I was wondering if anyone had some tips/techniques before I jump into something like this.

why not try styreen strips, you can just glue them together and it's al lot easyer then having to cut metaal and soldering them together.
I'm rebuilding the baskel of my type-69 with styreen and I have to say its fast and easy

bracomadar,
I made a balcony out of the green wire that people use to wrap around dried flower arrangements. It is cheap, easy to work with, and glues together easily with superglue. It's hard to bend, but once you have it bent, it is wonderful about holding its shape.
Hope it helped
Ciao for now
Rob

You could also use streched sprue but maybe the scale is too large for that.
You don´t necesserally have to solder it if you use metal. You could use CA or two component glue. I´ve built a few railings and ladders that way.

I made window guards with solder. Two window guards cost me a weekend.I used pins in a scrap of teflon sheet for my layout. I actually rolled the solder with the cross-hatched end of my hobby knife for effect. Then I used drops of super glue to join the overlaps, hence the Teflon sheet. Came out great. Also, solder allows you to fix or damage to your heart's content.

Soldering, without leaving blobs is very difficult.

Sealhead

Two suggestions:

1. Look into Model railroad shops... many of the Grates, fences, Doors and other items make great 1/35 window frames, balcony railing shutters etc.
2. If you are going to solder make a a jigs or get a set of Modeling Third Hand Clamps to hold everything in place. Use Silver solder – it is fine and drips less. Remember to use a good flux to clean the joint or union spot. I apply the heat to the under side with a flat head soldering iron and then touch my solder to the top of the joint and let the heat draw in down.

This is a Periscope guard I soldered using fine gauge brass wire



Here is a balcony I soldered.




This is a third hand clamp unit I am talking about.



Get Shep Paine’s book on Making Models and Dioramas He has a great basic on soldering. I am sure there are lots of helpful articles here or at other sites.

Good luck

John

I only attempted this once .. in 120mm scale. Was quite happy with the result. You´ll need very fine plastic rod though for this scale. Making a pinned template/guide is the easiest way for holding the rod while cementing and still keepint it square.
the points were made by cuttinglittle squares of plastic strip and then cutting them diagonally.

Thanks for the input guys. I think I'll try it out and see what happens. If that doesn't work, I'll use some super glue.

I love the technique that PlasticBattle used to make his "pike rail" fence.... quite convincing. If you look at my product "Small Stone Bridge", you will see that I did a concrete style railing that came out quite well. I created the master from Wood strip and wooden dowels that were already carved to shape. This was then used to make the master for the mold. Quite simple, and very easy to do. And wood is SO easy to work with... a Dremel Tool and a few bitgs are all you need to make most any fancy shape.