I need 1/35 barb wire for my Omaha ´44 scenario.
Thought of making it from scratch, metal wire with drops of super glue, little debris added to play spikes.
Any ideas or suggestions will be appreciated!

Toni Kysenius

Toni, I've tried a lot of different things for making barbed wire. This is the one I like the most and gives the best results (in my oppinion). I have read about it in Military Modelling:

Cut two or three lengths of thin copper wire and anchor them together at one end. Stretch each strand to straighten wire and then twist the strands together (I usually anchor the strands with a pin of some kind and use a weight on the other side... turning the weight will result in twisting the wire strands; the twists are immaculate in that way... ). Now you have the barbed wire backbone and all you need more are those little spikes. Wrap a single strand twice around the wire backbone, loop and wrap again a bit further. I usually make 1 cm intervals between the spikes. Drop a bit of superglue at each wrap, cut the loops away, paint and weather it and voila... You have the barbed wire.

I hope I explained it well. My English is not as good as I would like it to be..

Mario M.

Excellent job Maki ! And an excellent explanation, in English. Makes me want to stop what I'm doing and 'make some barbed wire'

Tread.

BTW, any suggestions on 'razor' wire? hehe.

Thanks Mario! Great! Just one little detail bugs me: in scale 1/35, the wire is supposed to be very thin I assume. How thin is the wire you´re using? Sounds like 0,15mm or something?

Toni

Mario,
Great way of doing barbed wire, sounds like Ill have to try this!! Have you done this in a larger scale? and if you have how does it look??

Thanks!

Toni, I've done it in 1/35... The wire is very thin, but I don't actually know how thin it is. I've tried with wire of various thickness and used what I thought was best. I think I have a pic of it somewhere; I'll look for it and post it.

As for the bigger scale, I suppose I would do the same thing but with somewhat thicker wire... I haven't done it actually but I think it should work out fine.

Mario M.

I did this already 20 years ago ! Except then, I had no CA glue. The wire backbone went quite well, but those little twists were not too great. I tried it again later, and that was much better.

But no matter how badly you do it, if you follow Maki's explanation your barbed wire will look MUCH better than any expensive PE barbed wire kit.

You can use thin copper wire (two or three strands out of a multiple electricty wire). You know the kind our parents used to repair a blown fuse with before those automatic fuses were on the market. Well, thàt thin !
But then you have a problem of painting it all. Best thing to do is look for ::: thin ::: white metal wire.

I struggled to find good wire for a long time, until I took the most obvious step. I walked into a local electronics parts shop and asked to see all their wires. I took a meter of at least ten different kinds of electric wire. I've used them for all kinds of scratchbuilding purposes. Pretty cheap, too.

never share a foxhole with someone braver than you

Yeah, it sounds awesome. Plus, I don´t really want to blow my budget in the very beginning...and it´s something that makes you really proud, making these things as much as possible yourself.
Those accessory packs really are expensive, and here in Helsinki there are only a couple of places to get this stuff. It seems a lot of products exist, just have to know the right place to get them. Gotta go now, there´s some wire waiting to be barbed! Thanks you all!

Toni

Thanks! A normal electric copper wire turned out fine! I took two strings in order to keep it thin and added the spikes the way Maki described. Looks great...the painting & weathering is a problem though, but if I just bend it in place and paint it afterwards, it should be ok. The acrylics rip off the copper, but maybe some enamels would work?

Cheers.
Toni

Toni, I usually paint the wire dark brown mixed with some orange to get a rusty look to the wire. It takes couple of thin coats for wire to completely absorb the color. When this is dry I do a rather heavy black wash (or more if needed)... and this is it.
Glad you are satisfied with the way the wire turned out...

Mario M.

Toni,
You can spraypaint a thinner first, then use a metal coating. But making it a rusty wire is a lot easier, and more realistic if your diorama is not with modern armor. Those fancy rust-free alloy wires probably came in only after WWII... I remember when I was a kid in the sixties, ALL barbed wire was rusted. But even when you use rusty colors, a primer will be useful. If not, the copper will start to show as paint peels of in the future...

Since you said you need it for your "Omaha '44" scene, it will definitly be rusty. Heck any bare metel near the beach will rust in no time flat. (Salt air)

One thing I would recommend you do before you make the wire (since you said you made it...a little too late) is to rough-up the wire with some sand paper. This will give the paint a better bite to the wires.

Great tip, Kencelot... not just to give paint a better bite but also to give some texture to the wire. It never crossed my mind, but I'll have to try it next time. Thanks,

Mario M.

Another technique is to take window screen, the plastic kind, and cut it into one strand pieces. Just use a ruler and cut down the middle of each row so that there is only one strand with little points sticking out on each side. This is good if you need a whole lot of wire.

Steve

Firstly, welcome aboard salt2, aka...Steve.

That sounds like a really cool idea. Good one. I might just have to check it out. Thanks.

Hmm, just a thought here, but why not use the metal screens instead of the nylon ones. That way when you cut them (if you cut them right down the middle of the other perpindicular wires) you already have the 'barbed' part of the barbed wire...........what do you think?

Anyone?

Tread.

The metal screens are woven and would fall apart.

SB

No problems at all weathering with acrylics. Drybrushed some brownish red over flat black, and it´s just like the real thing.

Toni

Glad to hear that, Toni... How much wire did you make? It seems you'll need a lot if you are planning a dio on Omaha beach landing...

Mario M.

Heh. Just finished a 25 cm piece My Omaha will be a corner of a bunker, inspired by Medal Of Honor, with four guys taking cover, preparing for a run under fire. Just need enough wire to put one poor through-the-helmet-shot rifleman totally f***ed up with it...plus, he´s laying in a small pond of water.
I´m basically fooling around testing techniques and different materials, maybe the next dio will be something more original...

BTW, I´ve seen messages with pics included, how to do such thing?
Toni

Toni,
be sure to let us all see those pics of the completed dio. :-)

Sure. Better start rottening your tomatoes, gentlemen.

Toni

Hi there;
I´ve tried both methods (the wire and the windows screen) each one was good, but I felt the wire method more reallistic, since you can shape it easier than the plastic screen...
Just a comment!
Cheers!

Yep! You're right, darn it

Tread.

I noticed someone sneering at the PE barbed wire earlier. Keep in mind that the most common modern (since the late-70s) "barbed wire" is actually "razor tape", which is basically a long flat strip with a wire stiffener in the middle. The barbs are actually sliced out of the metal strip and bent outward a bit. This is most commonly used in spiral "concertina wire", although the razor tape is available (and used) straight and on a spool. So PE will better replicate this type of wire.