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BARBED WIRE

How to Make 1/6th Scale Barbed Wire Fences

by Rob Sorrels

Items needed: 30 gauge wire (found in hobby stores, Wal-Mart, etc - used for flowers & stuff), twigs (about 1/2 inch diameter), piece of wood (about 1/2 inch thick, plywood OK), glue, locking pliers or forceps, wire cutters, drill & bits, saw, rag.

1. Determine how much distance you want between fence posts. Also determine how high you want the fence to be (about 6 inches for a regular fence, about 16 inches or higher if you want to build a POW stockade).

2. Cut your wood about 2" - 3" wide and 2" - 3" longer than you want the fence section to be.

3. Cut the twigs to length, adding about 1/2 inch (or the thickness of your wood).

4. Drill 1/2 inch holes in the wood where you want the fence posts to be.

5. Glue fence posts into holes in wood. Set aside to dry thoroughly.

6. Cut a piece of the wire two times the distance between the fence posts, plus an extra 12 inches. For a 12 inch length of fence the length will be 36 inches (12 inches times two plus 12 more inches). The extra 12 inches of wire will be used to wrap around the fence post and secure the wire to the post.

7. Place the two ends of the wire together and pull the wire tight to form a doubled piece of wire.

8. Using the vice grip pliers or forceps, grab each end of the doubled wire and twist the wire. Keep twisting the wire until it has about 1/8 inch or less between the places where the wire crosses over itself.

9. Place the rag over the doubled & twisted wire and firmly pinch the wire (I fold the rag several times to give me a thicker pad of protection). Starting at one end of the twisted wire, squeeze and pull the rag along the length of the twisted wire (similar to closing a "zip-lock" bag). Do this a couple of times. What we are doing is setting the twist into the wire so when we remove the pliers/forceps the wire won't untwist by itself. You MUST use a rag or something similar because the wire will cut through skin if you try this with unprotected fingers!!! Set the wire aside.

10. Repeat steps 6 through 9 until you have one strand of wire for every inch to inch-and-a-half of post height.

11. Cut a bunch of 2" lengths of wire. Keep cutting, you'll need a BUNCH of these!

12. Take the 2" pieces of wire and wrap them around the twisted wire sections. Start about 3 inches from one end and wrap them every inch. Make sure you wrap them tightly against the twisted wire, and wrap each one about 4 times around the twisted wire. These will be the "barb" part of your barbed wire fence. Don't worry about how long the ends are, just wrap the entire length of twisted wire. Do this for all pieces of twisted wire you made in steps 6 - 9.

13. Take your wire cutters and snip off the extra length on each end of the barbs. Real barbs are about 1/2 inch long. I make the barbs a bit longer than normal (scale-wise) because they look better (i.e. you can see them!). Play around with the final length of your barbs and make them as long as you think looks good.

14. Wrap the ends of each section of barbed wire around the fence posts and twist the wire back on itself to hold the wire onto the post. BE CAREFUL - the barbs are REAL! ;-) Snip off the extra wire. Do this on both sides of the fence section, starting about 1 inch from the wood and working up about an inch for every piece of wire.

15. The fence section is finished. I make mine about 12 inches long so I can move them around easily. You can make them any length and any height. A good way to finish off the wooden bottom is to glue dirt, flocking, etc to the wood to simulate dirt, grass, etc. Need something besides fences? Make the sections of barbed wire and then coil them up to simulate coiled barbed wire. Use small (about 1 inch tall) pieces of smaller twigs glued into a wider section of wood, string the barbed wire between them and create "tanglefoot." Let your imagination roam wild! Good luck & have fun!