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Very cool Skalk. Saved that for later.

Really cool idea, will have to remember that for later.

Gods that is brilliant. Fiddly but awesome.

Wonderful tutorial skalk! Thank you.

I have seen a similar technique Skalk, one that used a power drill to save effort on twisting up the wire to get nice tight twists. I wonder if a dremel has enough torque to do that.?

Stuff looks good Bud. Keep up the good work.

All- Thank you, nice to know I can still offer relevant ideas.

@ sennacherib- I've used that before with much thicker wire when I was making a chainmail tunic. Drill worked great for that project but I would advise against that setup w/ this wire as it is so thin. I imagine that 1,000,000 RPM (or whatever it really is) would wind it up and snap it off in an instant.

Well uninsulated copper might snap, but the plastic coating holds it in place, I've done this before. In fact, that's exactly how they make twisted pair cables. You obviously want to use a variable speed cordless drill, not a high-powered electric drill.

I've heard that pipe cleaners that have the bristles burned off with a lighter provide scale appropriate twisted wire for a base. Pull one of them apart for the barbs.

You can also get the pre-twisted picture-hanging wire, but that stuff is harder to cut, being galvanized steel. (It'll ruin your clippers) They sell different sizes/thicknesses though.

Great tut mate.

I've been silently following this thread for a long time, and I've got many great ideas and inspiration from it, I though I might as well throw my two cents in for once.

I've used the copper wires from networking or coms cables with decent results; AWG 24 gauge wire has a .51 mm diameter after stripping the insulation (Although the same or very similar to the one you used, from the look of the pics, so still too thick maybe for what you are looking for this time).


Single copper threads from an electrical stranded wire are thinner than that, and would probably be a better fit scale-wise.

For twisting the wire for the main double strand, a cordless power drill works great, a dremel on the other hand would probably be to fast (0-750 rpm versus 10.000 rpm at least).

Lastly, I also made the barbs from a single, uncut piece of wire (Three turns around the main wire, a short "open" loop until the next barb, three thigh loops around the core wire again and so on), and then cut out the loops/trimmed the barbs to the desired length.

(This way you'd waste more material -and probably spread cuts of wire all around the place; wearing proper eye protection is recommended, those bits tend to fly around-, but work much faster than using a single short length for each barb).

neat tut skalk looks simple enough to do gonna have to store that for later

Correction to offer- sennacherib was right, I was wrong. This weekend I decided to try it so I built a bracket for my Black & Decker drill and using 26GA wire it worked out very well, twisted a strand appx 2 ft in 10 seconds, didn't break, and it's ready for barbs.

My work on terrain is random right now, I'm not working on anything specific. I'll try to finish a strand of barbed wire soon and share it here. It looks very promising for mass production if my next 2 ideas work out.



*********************** edit *************************

...and then by random happenstance I found this on ebay this afternoon:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Handmade-barbwire-for-miniature-wargames-and-war-terrain-40k-Dust-Tactics-/161119333274?pt=Games_US&hash=item258375eb9a

Wow.

I want to learn his technique. Anyone have ideas to share how he does this?

Cheers for the tut Skalk thats very useful

Man, I can't believe that I posted something w/o addressing anyone first. That's not like me at all. Probably a headspace day.

ANYway...

@ dsteingass- right as always. Your Terrain Fu is strong. (x2) I think that is the stuff (picture wire) that I found in my tool box and was the 2nd set of pics I posted. Not sure. Packaging for that wire was likely lost before I was born. I got that wire in a tool box I bought at a garage sale many years ago, and all of the tools in it were made in America.

@ Jeffar- I'm going to try that and see if it works out for smaller applications where I'll be hand-twisting.

@ graven- Thank you. I have inspiration every now and then.

@ Littletower- thanks for posting! It's always very cool to see people step out of the dark and contribute. Never worry about posting your pics here. I started the thread to log my progress and get feedback, but also for other people to share thier work as well. You are encouraged to share your ideas so I can -steal- learn new techniques. Many people that follow this thread have been huge inspirations for me. You've just joined the club. Your barbed wire looks excellent and the application on the bases shows the scale perspective. I'm going to try the 'loop' idea as well. It is more material cut out, but it's not wasted by any means. I might hold on to it for 20 more years but eventually it'll be used to secure a girder, make a power coil, etc.

@ alabamaheretic- I'm looking forward to seeing your take on this. There seems to be many 'right' ways to do it. If you come up with another idea please be sure to share.

@ GiraffeX- No problem. It dusted off the technique I used and gave me some better ideas. Plus it inspired others to share how they do it, so overall it was a worthwhile endeavor.



Nothing 'terrain related' today, just saying 'hello' to everyone that posted earlier. I do have a couple new things that I'll share over the weekend. Nothing major, just a few more fiddly bits to put on the table. Because as you all know, I need more barrels and crates and piles of random junk.

One thing I'm working on is a Power Cell generator. I'm having a go at my first genuine OSL. I don't like it so much yet but like many of my projects I'm extremely critical of my work and everyone else likes it. If nothing else it will be a good start for something I can improve on. I've always hesitant to step outside my comfort zone when I don't know how to do something. I admit that is ridiculous because I can't learn a technique and improve on it if I don't ever try it in the first place, but it seems so daunting and I'd rather make dirty rusty things than 'fail' at something new. Such is the logic of Skalk Bloodaxe.

Another thing I've been working on is more dirty rusty piles of junk (ha!). Quick, easy, and always has an application on the tabletop whether it's 40K or Necromunda. I've been doing the 'random bitz' thing again and making use of stuff I've been hauling around for years (because I'll use it someday. Really, I will!) and I'm happy with the results so far. Ah, the sweet feeling of accomplishment!

Going way OT on this last bit, but wanted to finally mention it. You may have noticed that I've been around Dakka a lot more recently. IRL was kicking me down for a while, but I started to kick back and I've cleared out a lot of things that kept me from having time or interest in the things that I enjoy the most. So tomorrow I'm riding to NY to visit a friend I haven't seen in 2 years. Next week and overall things are pretty decent. I do not share my negative stuff on Dakka because it is my escapist microcosm for modeling and community and I'm not going to screw that up. But I will share triumphs, and I'm feeling more awesome right now than I have in many months. So cheers to personal victory and being back on Dakka! Expect good things from me in the future. It's getting colder and darker around here these days. That is my clarion call to build a fire, grab a beer, and paint little toy soldiers.

As always, thanks for looking. I'll be back.

Excellent Skalk. Keep kicking butt and taking names.

Well glad to see you kick life back hopefully sqaure in the junk!

Fiddly bitz are always good i need more of them in my life.

I do miss your thread being updated always had cool ideas...i actually stepped outta my comfort zone today as well and hope to keep improving...well fire and beer is fine as long as you dont melt your little plastic men. take care buddy

Maybe swing by here on your way back up?

I feel ya Bro...I've had my bouts recently too with not finding enjoyment in the things I love. I used to love watching Football, but last weekend I was watching, and I couldn't help but think "What is the point?" the announcers were beyond irritating me, they were just plain annoying to me. I kept thinking "how can you asswholes seriously waste your entire lives talking about this pointless waste of time day in and day out?" My Hobby Bench was a disaster, and I didn't even want to look at it anymore. I don't have the answer by any means, but I forced myself clean it up and start a project and that really did help. I hope you get your groove back bro. We love seeing the wonders you create! As Red Green would say "Keep your stick on the ice, we're all in this together"

Skalk, great to hear that the matter is... resolved. Now moar cultists!

Great to hear Skalk. I need to spend more time browsing awesome threads like yours. Aside from updating my own threat to keep motivated I have done next to zero... I need to make the time because your thread is awesome and there are so many good threads going on on dakka. I feel honored to be a member of such an amazing community of creative people.

I wish so much that I could meet you folks in person. I know that a start is to begin attending GT events and such.


Anyways, I wont be a stranger. Keep on the great work building a better battlefield.

Good to hear you are on the up Skalk. I'm always looking forward to your updates for the pretties and the information/hints/tips.

Good on you sir, really glad to hear you, and looking forward to some more of your work and conversation.

@ everyone- Thank you.



Small update, didn't get as much modeling time in as I had hoped but I traded that time to play M:TG w/ the kids so it was very well spent.

Before I get started, I want to point out that except for the 2 pre-built items you'll see in a moment, everything was built and mostly painted Friday night. I was a whirlwind of productivity. I did not pull out the models I've already started. I'll save those for another update.

Anyway, I was going through my bitz Friday night and found the broken pieces of a barrier I used to use for 40K / Necromunda from when I lived in VA. I always knew something was 'missing' from my models but I did the best I could and in this case I just drybrushed Bolt Gun Metal over a black primer. Here's how it looked once I (mostly) put it back together.:



While pondering what to do w/ it my eyes focused in on this piece on my shelf:



A few 'snaps' and cuts later, this is what happened:



Skipping ahead, this is where it is now:





There's a lot of work left to be done but I think it is a significant improvement to the piece overall and a more logical use of the old Necromunda barrier. This building is going to be one of my centerpieces once it is done.

If you were a fan of the large blue box that was on the 'roof' earlier, fear not. It was salvaged into a playable piece instead of being cast back into the bitz bin. I added the skull (which was cut from a Necromunda bulkhead from from the same time frame and the barricade earlier) and I added another random bit from a broken HO scale train I've had for over 2 years. It's not a clean or detailed model, but it'll serve my needs and will look well enough to fit in w/ the rest of my table.





I also decided to finally finish the last of the Tunnel / Vent access points. 2nd pic is of WIP, not finished models:





Next 4 pics are of 2 projects that I'm mostly please with. Blown up pics on my monitor showed me a couple places that need some cleanup. First 2 pics are my favorite collection of junk I've built in a while. And since I have a lot of those GW 20mm movement bases I'll be making a lot more of these. Easy to build, easy to configure into larger pieces on the table, and keeps me closer to my 'use what you have' approach to modeling.

The 2nd set of pics are a piece w/ 40mm WFB base. I like this one a lot as well, but there's a lot of cleanup to do on the red barrel and a bit to do in other various places. The vegetation was intentional. I try to show fluff on my table as much as possible, and the greenery on this model is of wild fungus. Hivers gather that stuff as part of a staple of their diet. I like having some on the board now and then, and would make a great objective marker depending on the game scenario:

First set:





Second set:





And finally, the largest haul I've scored in quite a while. I was at the local flea market this morning as found a HUGE box full of old and broken model train parts. I figured he's want at least $50 or even more, but I still asked. He pondered for a moment, LITERALLY rubbed his chin as he figured things out, and then said '$20'.

...


I pulled my wallet out so fast I almost broke the sound barrier. I brought the box home, went though everything, threw out a lot of random junk like power cables not related to the set, papers and trash, etc. Pic below is what I kept:





That's it for this one, thanks for looking. I'll be back with more soon.


*** edit- typos ***

WHOA! Is that all O scale??? (other than the smaller stuff?) Great find for $20!!

I love the truck bed, but it needs a different rust color or some chipped paint over top. Also, where did you get the little red lockbox? That's a very nice accessory piece! Also, the little roll of fencing is badass! great idea!

Nice haul dude.

Love the scenery, as always, great when things kind of click together like that.

wow thats an impressive find buddy!

every thing is looking really good right now man...i love the use of the bases for junk piles/objective markers. really clever

keep up the good work!

Nice little bits of terrain and good job on the terrain piece shuffling.

Just had to pull out this picture and ...
"Gerroff MY Urrrgh..."

Look forward to what happens to all that train stuff.

Great catch on those goodies man , can't wait to see what becomes of them.

The "blue box" reminds me of a Suicide Booth from Futurama.


All other terrain is looking sweet, bud! Keep the pics coming.