Thursday, February 3, 2011

Quick and easy razor wire.

I have been asked a few times about how I make my razor/barbed wire for my futuristic figure bases.
This is not the most realistic I have ever seen but it is certainly the easiest.

Floral wire is the only material you'll really need for this one.
For 28mm scale figs, I typically take 3 strands of the wire. 4 strands makes a pretty heavy duty cable look, and 2 strands could be used for Flames of war and similar scaled games. You'll want to put your strands together and bend one end of them together with some pliers, to give your drill chuck something substantial enough to hold on to.
Insert the bent ends into a power drill chuck and hold the other side with a pair of pliers and spin slowly until you get the desired braiding effect.     Bad pic but I hope you get the idea.
Once it is all twisted up remove from the drill and cut off the ends that did not get twisted with some wire cutters. I put a dab of superglue on each end of the strands at this point to prevent them from fraying back apart.
Once the glue is dry, wrap your wire braid around something that will give you the correct scale. I used a paintbrush handle. For smaller scales, wrapping around a toothpick might be a good option.
Now just pull off your coil, snip sections off and apply paint as you need them.
Here's a few recent examples of stuff I've used it on.