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Experimenting with making 15mm barbed wire (part two)

Selecting the wire you will use is a very important step. If you use a single solid wire then you can get it as close as possible to “actual scale”. If you use twisted wire it has better texture, but will always be substantially larger than just the single wire alone. Go with whatever you think looks best since it is impossible to please everybody.

Next you want to place the fence posts you made earlier into the template that you used to make all of the bases with. The base template will do double duty as the loom used to weave the wire obstacle.

Use a long pointy object like a pin to pierce the fence posts and begin threading the wire down the line of posts.

Have a long enough coil of wire at each end to complete the project (if possible). Generally speaking you don’t want the wire to be any longer than the length of your arm or it gets a little difficult to work with.

Using the staples as temporary clamps, start the zig-zag pattern. Use the holes already punched in the posts and don’t wrap the wire. Wrapping the wire will result in a large mass of very visible knots that won’t look anything like you want it to.

Go all the way down,  alternating sides with one of the wires, then come back up the other way with the second coil.

Next connect the zig-zag wires together. As a minimum you will need at least one of these wires. How many more you choose to use is up to you. A real fence would have at least four or five of them per side. Real fences are also very open looking and if you use too many wires the model will begin to look too solid. Experiment a little then go with whatever you think looks best.

While making these I passed the wires underneath the zig-zag lines. Once they were all finished I realized that was a mistake. Having the loop on the top side makes it too prominent. My next batch will be made with the wire on top and the loop underneath to help conceal it.

Once the weaving of wire is complete you can cap the tips of the posts with a little glue to make them look solid and help keep them together. Now remove the temporary clamping staples and your finished wire obstacle should pop easily out of the loom. Repeat as many times as you need to make all of the wire obstacles you want.

Paint the wire and posts in the colors you prefer. Newly emplaced wire would be very shiny and old wire would be very dark. Table top reality is that shiny wire looks better from a distance, and darker wire looks better up close. Personal preference again on which you prefer.

Finish of your base however you want and mount the posts onto the thumb tacks. Don’t try to glue the wire down at the staking points, instead run a loop of suitably colored threat up through the staking hole in the base and around the wire. Fill the hole with glue, cover with flock, then cut the thread off the back side when the glue is dry.

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