This was supposed to be a quick and simple detail addition...
The first fence used a sample of EZ Line (from Berkshire Junction). It's their thinnest line, and it's in their rust color.
EZ Line is a very interesting elastic polymer. It can stretch quite a bit (they say 700%) without putting tension on whatever it's attached to. I used it on the short section of visible fence near a switch ground throw hoping that if the fence gets accidentally bumped when reaching in to throw that switch the line wouldn't pop off the posts or break them.
I made the fence on my work desk and then installed it on the layout, thinking that would work better than trying to assemble it in place. That didn't go as nicely as hoped. Some of the tiny glue spots popped loose many times. And I couldn't get the line to sag just a little between the posts.
For the other fences I used the thinnest polyester sewing thread. It's noticeably oversize, but I'll live with it. (The other option I discarded was using fine strands of copper wire soldered to copper wire fence posts.)
As feared, the thread also easily pops loose from the posts because there is so little surface area for the glue contact, but these fences should be less likely to get bumped into.
Everything looks good in the photos. Which reminds me: Next time, to avoid aggravation, just glue in the fenceposts and use a photo editing program to add the barbed wire. Or is that cheating? -- Russ
Russ, I did cheat in the third photo with the train, not with the 'barbed wire', but with the sky.
The white 'sky' above the train is overexposed natural light from a window, but the white 'sky' above the cows and big tree was digitally added to eliminate part of a wall and bookcase.
Do I have to stand in the corner for that?
No, you don't have to stand in the corner for cheating with digital skies, young William. Instead, I encourage you to run for public office, where any kind of cheating is a virtue. -- ssuR
Bill how do you do it - Do your eyeballs ache or worst still a bad headache ! like a hangover without the booze ! (which is the worst sort ) dealing with such small scales - Im having a problem returning to 1/35th scale dealing with the little fiddle bits . I think at some point a compromise is required in small detail - But The word compromise was not recognised by BUGATTI the car man but hid also say BENTLY make very fast Lorries !!
Barney
Thanks, Barney. I tumbled into the small scale, small detail rabbit hole quite awhile ago. I try to rationalize it by noting that because my layout is tiny, there aren't nearly as many things to detail. I like trying to capture small stuff, though when I remember the HO scale models and scenes that Anders Malmberg used to post, my stuff doesn't seem all that detailed.
Your doing great - keep the good work up and just keeping it coming - its these little things that make his forum great
The 00 scale English model railway at PENDON ENGLAND even put the staples in the fence post !! I believe they use
PE barded wire with a robin on one of them.
Barney
Barney,
You're right, the modelers on this forum inspire doing good stuff.
My first thought was to use a strand of very thin copper wire from a headphone to make staples for the fences! That would have readily solved the problem of the glue popping loose.
But my fence posts are bamboo skewers that I thinned down to scale diameter, and drilling 3 or 4 holes in each post for the "staples" made the posts too fragile to plant into the scenery.
I found a photo of a fence on the Pendon Layout and am very impressed with those staples!!! I wonder what their fence posts are made of? They look a little heavier than mine.
The fence posts are normally small section pine or round pine dowel as in the model boat people type thing - I have tried using Bamboo sticks for knots in wood in the larger scales but it does not stain very well and does not like wood glue always ending up with Pine or Lime which is easy to get hold of from Model boat suppliers - not many suppliers in the UK for Kappler type wood and Mr T is not helping the import of American Model railroading for the UK + the appalling state of most postal services.
Different modellers are used at Pendon but all keep to the strict standards - real amazing stuff the buildings are embossed card very realistic brickwork.
Barney,
On one project I had good luck adding knots to wood using real knots.
Unfortunately I have no idea where they came from originally because I found the twigs in a street gutter. But the knots were small and easily removed from the surrounding twig.
They were too big for HO scale but with a little shaving down around their edges they woked really well for an O scale model.
Another material that may work is amature wire, some is extremely fine. I MAY be able to get you some if you want. There was a bunch in a abandoned lab at work months ago...it might still be there. Let me know if you want to try it and I will take a look.
Thanks for your offer, Paul.
I have some armature wire that I scrounged from someplace.
My original plan was to make very fine eye pins out of it and glue those pins into predrilled holes in the posts. Then set the posts in the ground and string more of the wire through the eyes. It didn't go well.
However, I still have the wire and stuff to make more fence posts, so perhaps sometime I'll try again.
Bill
Here's some info I found on the internet some months ago. I think it could be adapted to most any scale. It may provide some helpful direction.
Stuart
Barbed wire 1.jpg
Barbed wire 2.jpg
Am I the only one unable to see Stuart's images? -- Russ
I can see them fine here.
If there is a problem viewing the images I can repost by actually typing out the proceedure.
Stuart
Thanks, Stuart!
Something to try out.
At one time I attempted making simple overhand knots along a single strand of thread to represent the barbs in HO scale. Keeping them evenly spaced at a scale HO 6 inches apart got eh best of me. But "real" barbs on wire looks very interesting.