Zona Alfa - New Fences

For a while now I've been thinking about adding new/different/better fences for my terrain box.

Playing those exploration maps a couple of months ago I think had enough of my old crappy fences but 'nondescript' terrain is stuff you can normally not have too much of.

For example if you've got 6 trees then you can't create a forest, or block out a section of the board, you just have a couple of small, obscuring terrain pieces.

Similarly with fences you can create a bit of a impassable area, but you need a lot of it to i.e. properly secure an industrial warehouse.

So I was looking for mdf kits cos they're generally easy but I never saw anything I liked, or where there was enough in the box to make it a worthwhile option. aka. very overpriced for something so optional.

As usual I had a 'go make it' moment and started work. i had picked up a bag of 'craft dowels' from the two dollar shop, and i already had some paddle pop sticks.

I figured these could be the main 'framework'.

And that worked. I did a rough line up to work out how many I wanted to make, 12 apparently and 2 with 'gates' (saves knocking fences over). 

I ended up adding a second paddle pop stick on the bottom to try to make it more stable but that didn't really help.  A comparison next to my old ones.

The old ones are far chunkier, very much more a scrap post-apocalyptic feel.  I wanted something lighter that looked close to realistic scale chainlink.   Originally the wood was super-glued together, then i went back and slopped wood glue around the joins to help hold things in place.

I found some thicker/heavier plastic fly screen.  I was originally hoping for perhaps some aluminium mesh but hardware shops here are so primary colours that that wasn't an option.  Anyways, I spent an afternoon trying little mesh rectangles to the frames, then gluing the edges to reduce fraying. It dries clear. 

This is one possibility for use. Just a simple gang compound. Doesn't provide much cover like this but you can add sandbags and metal barricades and whatnot. This just defines the perimeter and keeps the hostiles from rushing you immediately.  I ended up putting little feet across the bottom of each piece to help with stability. It became much more necessary once the razor wire was attached to the top.

The razor wire is just craft wire, wound together with an electric drill into a 2-ply stand, then wrapped around a pencil.  This was then tied to the top of the fence... yes there was quite a lot of fiddly work making these.   I put some wall plaster on the bases to start the 'basing' and filling gaps.  And then a spray of leadbelcher using up the dregs of the can.

And this... is the finished product.  Pretty happy with the results. You can easily chunk off a large section of the board,  or funnel paths across the board,  or create a compound.  Didn't go nuts with this one by any means.

The fences rate in as "tall enough" and are solid and razor-wired enough to warrant being impassable. You could probably drive the APC though them but the poles are cemented into the ground so that might even be risky.  For infantry models anyway they're tough enough.

Quite an enjoyable little project, utilizing mainly scraps, leftovers, and minor bits and pieces.

Until next time...