Has anyone used Aber 1/35 scale barbed wire alongside 54mm and 80mm figures?
Will I be able to use it without it looking ridiculously out of scale?
I've ordered some anyway but I'd be interested in your views.

Roger.

Hello Roger

I think this will work out well.

My experience is that since the photo etch barbed wire is flat I use to wind it carefully with a thin copper wire to get a more authentic look.

Cheers
Per Olav

Thank you Per Olav, as King of the World War One diorama your opinion is highly regarded
I have never used this product before, or in fact any photo etched product please can you explain what you mean by,

My experience is that since the photo etch barbed wire is flat I use to wind it carefully with a thin copper wire to get a more authentic look.

Thank you,

Roger.

Hello Roger

I cut of a 25-30 cm lenght barbed wire from the photo etch fret. Then I cut a thin copper/brass tread in about the same lenght. Roll the photo etch wire and copper wire carefully between your fingers, like the drawing.


Cheers
Per Olav

Thank you for taking the time to explain that Per Olav. It is clear now.

Cheers,

Roger.

I use fine copper wire, like the kind found in electric solenoid and small motors, and wind my own barbed wire with it. The first step is to cut a (rather long) length of base wire, fold this length of wire in half (for reference only just now). On one half of this length of wire twist shorter lengths of the same wire twice around the half strand, these will become the barbs, (probably easiest if the wire is stretched taunt for this step), don’t worry about the length of the short wires here, longer is better and won’t present any problems for finishing, other than wasting a bit of wire. Make sure that the two ends of the short (barb) wires are, when wrapped around the longer wire, opposing one another, and space these strands according to taste or prototype, keeping in mind that these will be about half the original distance apart after the next couple of steps. Next tie the two ends of the long wire together, fix in a vice or to some other unmovable object, fix the looped end of the wire in your motor tool, stretch the whole length taunt by pulling the motor tool away from the vice. At this point run your motor tool at as low a speed as possible allowing it to move towards the vice as the long wire will become shorter as it is twisted together. Keeping the twisted strands taunt clip the ends of the short (barb) wires close to the longer strands, leaving only a short barb protruding just like the real thing.

Hope this helps, and sorry I haven’t got any photo’s or sketches to illustrate the technique. If you find that some visual reference is necessary to understand my technique send me a note and I’ll see if I can’t get some photo’s taken for you.


Ray

Hi Roger,

I have wrapped my own barbed wire also out of copper and steel wire. I wasn't happy with the commercial versions of barbed wire so I decided to twist my own wire to 120mm scale. Sometime ago I had access to a section of barbed wire that had been recovered from a European battlefield and closely examined it before returning it to the owner. I took dimensional data and noted the manner in which it was manufactured to scale it down. Using a cordless drill I twisted the wire in a way similar to Ray's description in order to acheive a uniform twist and placed the wire in a jig to keep the wire straight & taught. After I was happy with the scale of the twist in the main wire, I used smaller sections of wire to create the individual barbs by placing them at appropriate increments along the main wire. On the ends of the smaller sections of wire I attached sewing needles to open the twists on the taught wire and twisted the barbs in the same manner as they appeared on the actual reference piece. This process is a little tedious but can be applied to all scales and it looks great when you apply "Rustall" to it, thus adding a touch of realism to any figure or diorama.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Dave Neary

Dave, Ray thank you for that.
I'll see what the stuff from Aber is like first but if I aren't satisfied I'll try your suggestions.
Thanks very much for taking the trouble to explain your methods.

Roger.

I clicked here thinking someone had posted some pictures of that great figure of Pamela Anderson in black leather! Guess what? You guys are actually talking about barbed wire! Bummer!

Sorry Pat, but if you try elsewhere on the net................ :lol:

Roger.