So, with my upcoming WW1 build for the Takom campaign, I was looking at PE and AM barbed wire. Holy **** that stuff is expensive! Not only that, but the PE looks almost two dimensional.

So I brought in some beading wire and tried my hand at scratchbuilding some. I think it turned out great!

I took 3 strands about a foot a piece and sat at my desk on a conference call and began twisting them together. About 15 minutes later my fingers were a little blackened, and I had a single strand of twisted cable. I then took a single strand and began making offset loops, turning the wire three times around the cable each time. I clipped off the loops and BEHOLD! Cheap barbed wire, in scale, for just about free.

...and I can make YARDS of it.

Nice stuff and at .45 a bargain.






Jeff

Which is exactly how real barbed wire was made. Very clever. I must give it a try. As you say, the etched stuff is just too 2-dimensional and far too expensive in any quantity.

You can get all sorts of craft wire quite cheaply, and multi-strand electical cable like speaker wire or low-voltage bell cable is dirt cheap. Strip the insulation carefully.

FoG Models make a "barbed wire" which turned out to be just a thin wire wrapped in a spiral around a thicker wire. Made the mistake of getting some. Open bin, insert product ........

Razor wire is made quite differently. It's stamped from thin sheet metal which is then formed around a wire core. Very difficult to replicate. Actually, thinking about it, this is somewhere where very, very thin etch might actually work. Be very fiddly to make up and doubtless cost a fortune.

Great tech tip