Simple Wooden Fences

Chris S

Its a bit like being handcuffed to a lunatic !
Joined
Feb 14, 2011
Messages
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Hi folks,

As part of my ongoing Marder III build Im putting together a small Diorama for it .Part of the backdrop of the dio is going to be an old rotten broken slat fence. So I thought Id take a little time to show my proccess of creating such a fence .
Im sure a lot of you know this stuff ,but there maybe some people new to the game ,or simply havent tried this sort of thing yet ,so hopefully someone will get something out of this .

Obviously you will need to consider the size and type of fence you want in your dio ,but you will need to decide on that yourself as to what suits ,but the construction will probably be very similar .

So ,To start off this is my basic materials .......
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In the foreground of the above pic is a bunch of coffee stirrers....very handy ;) they will make up my slats ,behind those are the posts and the runners already cut to length.

To do my cutting Im using a simple chopping blade ,but you can also use a modelling knife or similar.
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Once I have the components cut ,its time to start construction.In order to keep everything square Im using a cutting mat with a grid printed on it .I set out the two runners and temporarily fixed them down with a bit of Blu tack or plasticine.
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Then its time to start laying the slats .Again Im using the grid to line these up .The top edge and one side being lined up .I also wanted a slight gap between the slats ,so to get these all the same I used one slat on its edge as a spacer.

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Using a spot of super glue on the runners makes it really quick to assemble a panel. You will notice I left a few slats out this is because I want to add some broken parts
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Once all the slats are in place the fence can be turned over and the posts fitted ,remember to keep a bit of length on the bottom so they can be fixed into the ground ;)
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To do the broken slats simply break a few pieces and glue in place ...
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And here I have my basic fence .
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All of this only took an hour to do ,and some of that time was for taking the pics .

In the next part I will show how I distress the wood a bit more ,add the nail detail ,then paint & weather .

Thanks for looking ,please feel free to ask any questions ;)

Chris.
 
Thanks Scott ....Nail detail to follow in the next part ;)

Chris.
 
HAHA, don't laugh, I have some pre-cut wooden kits here that literally do have 1/35 nails to use. Not to put together of course, but to add to the effect that they have been nailed together.

Some of the AK products would weather that fence up very nicely!!
 
Yeah Im doing a similar thing to what you mention . And yes AK will be used to weather the fence ,Im looking forward to using the green slimes ..havent used them yet ;D

Chris.
 
very nice chris. as for 1/35 nails RBmodels makes/sells them :p
 
Nicely done, Chris!

Wooden coffee stirrers are a great resource, as are wooden matches (I save the sticks, after starting my charcoal grill), nice scratching!
 
Thanks fella's

I'll have the next part up soon ,hopefully tomorrow ;)

Chris.
 
Got another bit done on the fence .

I used a sharp blade to distress the slats a bit more ,putting some holes in and rotting up the bottom of some slats ,also breaking bits out in some areas .

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I then used the blunt end of a small drill bit to stamp in the nail heads ,the wood is quite soft so it doesnt need much pressure . Some copper wire was used to represent the broken /rotten nails were some of the slats are missing .

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After that I started the first stage of weathering ,to age the wood I used MIG's Dark wash ,this was applied all over the fence ,done very patchy to create darker and lighter areas .If you find its too dark you can simply remove some of the wash with a drop of clean thinners .

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You can see how the wash is bringing out the nail heads
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I'll let this dry then start adding the worn paint ,followed by more weathering

Thanks for looking.

Chris.
 
Chris,

That fence is looking good!!!!!!

Man, Your involved in so many projects, I'm bouncing all over the site trying to keep up, lol ;D
 
Spud & John ,thanks fella's :)

Stage three .....Paint .

Ok ,I sealed up the fence with some Klear and when that dried I put on a couple of coats of Hairspray ,This will work in much the same way as using it on a Tank or something . The difference is the paint will grip more to the wood because of the natural grain in the wood ,but its still effective . If you want more paint to come off then use the salt technique along with the hairspray .I want the paint to look like its weathered of and in some places I wanted a bit of peppering so I just used table salt as its much finer ,for larger areas of paint removal then use rock salt for the bigger chunks .

Hairspray and salt applied ....put the salt on while the hairspray is still a bit damp ,it will help it stick ;)

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Paint ,I used Tamiya flat white for mine ,but you can use what ever colour you like ,The paint was sprayed on in a few light coats and done very patchy .You can see in the pic why I added the dark wash first .Try to put less paint on the top and bottom of the fence where weathering happens more .

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Once the paint has dried its just a matter of taking an old stiff brush or in my case some scotchbrite moisten with a little warm water and start to gently scrub the paint off ,concentrating more on the top and bottom of the fence.

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In this pic you can see the peppering effect from the salt ...

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In the final part I will be adding more weathering ,streaking,grime ,rust and the green slimy stuff ;D

Thanks for looking.

Chris.
 
Thanks guys ,

Scott ,that sort of the effect I was hoping for ,the green slimes should help it along too ...I hope ;D

Chris.
 
Ok ,final stage of the fence :)

I've used AK Interactive products for the final weathering .

First up ,the Winter Grime was used to darken the top and bottom of the fence ...just a little touched to the wood and let soak in .....

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Following that I used the Green slimes to create the mildew / moss effect , using the Dark Green on the bottom and the Light on the top .....

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The last thing to do is some rust staining around the nails ,it just takes a tiny drop on the brush as it does soak in and spread so be careful ;)

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And thats that ;D simples ....

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There will be some dirt and mud added when this goes onto the dio ,But thats the end of this lesson ,Hope its of some use to someone ;)

Thanks for looking.

Chris.
 
Looks good Chris, I’m defiantly gonna try this some time. ;)

And I must get me some of them AK Products!
 

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