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Yo!
So I'm back in the UK, and picking up a sorta mini-project while I wait for my stuff to arrive from Korea.
I'm going for a sorta 1917 ww1 war fatigue trench rat kinda vibe, and was wondering if anyone could recommend any good stuff for terrain?
Mostly looking for barbed wire stuff and sandbags/corrugated metal/scrap metal for trenches, but anything else cool is v. appreciated.
Ideally if I have to make it myself, it wouldn't be too labor intensive, as my 'mini project' is kinda horde based.
Cheers for your help!

Try here:
https://elementgames.co.uk/paints-hobby-and-scenery/paints-hobby-and-scenery-by-manufacturer/gale-force-9/gale-force-9-scenics
[Referral code: IAN556 ]

Sand bags have been done my pressing putty in cloth, I think. Getting a uniform size might be fiddly. There is stuff about that in the FW Modelling Masterclass books.

that barbed wire is interesting, do you know whether I would want the 15mm or the 30mm?

No idea, sorry. I had seen it when I bought similar stuff, but not used that yet.
I'll poke through the FW books I have, and see what they suggest.

Barbed wire is ridiculously easy to make yourself and you can get the supplies you need from Poundland/The Works/somewhere like that.

Tutorial;

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/314348.page

When I needed some trenches for a 40k game a number of years ago, I used a bunch of Amera moulding's vacformed stuff.

They did the job. They're cheap, and they work, but they do need a little work.

Cool, thanks! This has been pretty informative thus far. Might have a crack at that barbed wire tutorial later in the week, it looks perfect.

I made a ww1 themed board for armies on parade a few weeks ago.


Used some milliput compound for sanbags, metal wire for barbed wire (similar to the tutorial linked earlier) and balsawood to cover the walls and bottom of the trench.
Balsa is really cheap and easy to work on. Using a brass wire it's easy to make an excellent texture to it.

Anywau, you might find some ideas from this thread covering the project:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/764420.page

For barbed wires iv seen the easy two wire twist and it works well. you could go way further with something like this
where they twist a 3rd wire in loops and cut it out to make actual prickly barbed wire. as well iv see people make it out of window screens. i think the spools are sewing machine spools. edit nope seems to be an actual bit from a kit or something but you could source them from sewing machine stuff

for corrugated steel.

Green stuff world makes tools to make a bunch of it. you will just need to cut up some soda cans for metal.

these will probably be very sharp as well so be careful.

@Ezki - I'm a big fan of that board! Cheers for the input! What's your technique for sandbags? And, beyond scraping the balsa wood with a wire brush, did you do anything else to get the texture on your duckboards, or does that just come naturally with the wood? (also what kind of colours would you recommend)

The barbed wire spools are interesting @Desubot might have a poke about, also cheers for the corrugated metal maker.

Thanks everyone!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Quick query - anyone ever used chicken wire for barbed wire?

 posermcbogus wrote:
@Ezki - I'm a big fan of that board! Cheers for the input! What's your technique for sandbags? And, beyond scraping the balsa wood with a wire brush, did you do anything else to get the texture on your duckboards, or does that just come naturally with the wood? (also what kind of colours would you recommend)

I rolled the epoxy stuff to a 5mm thick roll, which I then folded once. After that, some squeezing to get it a bit flat. The folding will make a "seam" for the bag.
Then I used scissors to cut good sized pieces. The scissors will make a nice pinched edge.

Regarding the balsa, it has a nice texture naturally. Just paint it with thin coats so it wont get covered.
Some pieces I cut a bit with a hobby knife, just to make some dents.
I painted the wood as follows:

- black acrylic paint as a basecoat
- drybrushed some mourfang brown and gorthor brown covering the whole thing. Might need a couple of coats, as the wood takes a lot of paint. I used both paints in different parts, to make the wood look a bit more realistic.
- wash with agrax earthshade (or some other brown wash)
- really really thin drybrush with ushabti bone to make the texture more visible
- Optional: another really really thin coat of drybrushed white / light grey. This was just to make the wood look a bit frozen.

Without wire brush:


With wire brush:



Chicken wire could work, but I think it might be a bit too thick and hard to handle.
I used 0.5mm wire.