Helloo, i want to do a fence for a diorama similar to style that is depicted in this thread.
what kind of wood or material do i use for fences. i thought about balsa wood, but the one i have (1 and 5 mm thick) seems to soft and instable.

Balsa wood the grain is far too course, and as you stated soft and instable. Try basswood, or boxwood, a much tighter grain, and a little harder than balsa wood, but still extremely easy to work with. You can usually find it in hobby and craft stores. And it comes in may different sizes.

On the inexpensive side - try coffee stir sticks - the wooden ones. They are tighly grained and a nice size and shape.

Actually I have had the best luck with Strip Styrene. It can be given whatever grain you wish with sandpaper, and/or a pin.

Howdy Foxy,

Great to see you're getting some input on this one And three darn good answers as well.

The main way to answer your question, is with a question if you don't mind.....If you are in fact planning on painting it as a fence in a dio {as is depicted in your supplied link}, then if your choice is wood, definitely go with Grumpy's suggestion of Basswood as opposed to Balsawood. Reason being is, that {as Grumpy stated} the grain is 'tighter'....but more importantly {as far as painting goes} it has less microscopic 'hair' protruding from it's surface than does Balsa.
Slodder's suggestion is also a dandy one, but my only hestation there would be the fact that most stir sticks I am familiar with have a factory applied wax coating on them and I'm not really sure how they would react to paint.....{my failing, sorry.....our good Slodder may be able to speak to this......}

If the fence you plan is going to be a more prominent feature of your dio, then maybe lean more towards Sticky's idea of using standard strip styrene....but, to create a 'wood' appearance on your strips, all you need do is take a full-length strip of Evergreen the size you desire, lightly heat/soften it, and then drag the entire strip across a stiff wire brush that is upside down {bristles pointing 'up'} on your modeling bench. Depending upon your techniques, you may have to do this a couple of times.......

hth.

Tread.

Oh.....if you prefer to stick with using Balsa and/or Bass wood, all you need to do to close up the grain sufficently is to apply what's called 'sanding sealer' available at your local Home Depot or art supply store.......just let dry overnight, and then your 'sticks' will be ready to go.....

OH, one other thing is---- REMEMBER TO STAIN IT BEFORE YOU GLUE IT!!!!!!!!!

Stain won't go through white glue, and you'll end up with little ugly unstained patches.

Have to agree with Sticky as well. Plastic strips are hard to beat. If you are going to use real wood and have it a natural colour, you need to cut it into the right lengths first and then stain it and then glue. If you assemble and glue the fence first, before staining, the stain will run off the glue and become very visible.
If you are going to paint the fence, the grain will be covered and you have to sand it anyway.
Plastic strips come in many shapes and sizes and when assembled is much more flexible and easy to work with. Below is a little fence I made recently. Its the tamiya fence, but it had no grain pattern so I used sandpaper and the back of my knife to give it grain. Paint a light coat for base colour and then use washes to give it depth.

Nice fence there Frank. Now.......would you explain how you did the large caliber bullet holes in the lamp post?......?

Tread.

Foxy's next question should be......how do you simulate broken, and/or splintered wooden fence posts in plastic?.....................

Try scale lumber by North-West Lumber for model RRers.
It's laser-cut basswood, scaled in 1/87 from 12"x12" beams to 2"x2" stringers. They are cut very accurate and precise without warpage. Some better stocked model RR shops stock it. Since HO is slightly smaller than 1/2 of 1/35th, a 2 x 4 in 1/35 scale would be close to a 4 x 8 in HO scale lumber, etc. Wood's advantages over styrene is that you can split it, crack it, break it, and burn it - especially burn it. You can't do that with styrene!

Something else that is pretty inexpensive that you might try...they are Flat Bamboo Party Toothpicks..definately strong enough and the grain is pretty good as well..Of course this depends on the size of fence you are looking at as well. Just a suggestion..
Mary

here is a quick pic that of a fence piece i threw together in about ten min. i applied a quick coat of stain just to pull out the grain.

oh, thanks guys and ladies

i got a 5mm square-shaped timber of the box wood (i think it is box wood). since i want to depict a very warped fence, i decided to split the wood battens of the desired thickness.

unfortunatly the advice with the stain comes to late...

Howdy Mary,

A very nice fence as well.....I think I will try this with a 'Nam era fence I'm thinking about. Your fence looks especially accurate for that setting.....

Tread.