Modular Fence System

Hello all,

in our recent game (and first ever) of Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd edition it became apparent that my supply of linear obstacles is quite limited - the walls you see on the photos in the AAR are all that I have. Among them only three corner pieces and no gates. Also, I do not have any sections to represent destroyed parts - which would have been of use with the cannon rules. Besides, these walls were done around 1998 - a time when my skill was a lot less developed than today.

Lets do some terrain!

What I do not like about many linear obstacles that you find pictures of online or which are even available to buy, is to recognize them as linear wargame modules. To illustrate what I mean lets take a look at the first fences I built for Warhammer 40,000 many many years ago:



The way the fence posts are placed is not as you would find them in reality, the posts would be evenly spaced, not two near each other as where two sections meet in the model fence.

So when designing my new fantasy fences, I thought of how to design them to disguise the obvious joins of the sections. The joins will be visible anyway, as there will be a physical join and I probably will not manage to line them up perfectly - what I am trying to achieve is to not have the joins obvious at first glance.

In the end I settled for the following design (designed in OpenSCAD):



The idea is, that the half posts on both ends join up to form a full post, like in the following two pictures:





The balsa wood for the posts and logs is ordered, the base plates I plan to get from the local DIY store. I will ask for sheets of 5mm MDF in 6" width - this way all the sections will have the same width. The long sides I will then cut by hand to get them  in irregular shapes.

Let's see how this will turn out.

Do you have any comment, critique or suggestion on this design idea?

I bought the MDF sheets last week, and started Saturday to work on the bases. The ordered balsa wood was on backorder, but should arrive this week as well.



I started to cut the boards using my Proxxon KG50 using the spacer. This makes sure the connecting edges are all the same width.



The rest of the way I cut with a coping saw.



The undersides where then sanded, so they were flat.



Next I drew two lines on the top side, the area between them will remain flat, the area to the outside will be sloped down.



I started the sloping by cutting a ~20° (the diagonal from the lower corner to the line marked on top from the center 10mm strip) angle at each corner, again to make the seam between two segments as even as possible.



The rest was cut freehand and then sanded.



All pieces done so far:

Sloping the edges of the board is a good idea. I've only done that with foam board - looks like it's reasonably easy even with hardboard.

Yes it is indeed. Of course it is not as easy to cut, but still no big deal. Only the blades blunt much faster.

I worked on some more bases today, I have 20 in total ready, now I need to wait for the balsa wood.

I constructed the first sections, two like my initial draft and two the way pendrake recommended over on tmp.







I think I will go with my initial design, as on the one hand I like the join between sections better (it hides the join better in my opinion) and on the other hand I only have the two half-posts at the join fix, the rest of the section I can design however I like to.

Next I will design a little helper tool that will help me to glue the half posts into place more exactly and at an exact 90° angle.

I built two helpers, one to get the horizonzal bars at the same height, and one to align the vertival end posts.



The first eight pieces are done, ready to be painted:

The next six modules are done. These are all damaged to some degree, never thought that I would ever use a heavy hammer in my wargaming projects...





Only six more straight ones to do, those will get some more gates.

The sguig race runway you could do with that...
Keep up the good work!

I finished the last 6 straight pieces. One has an 8cm wide door (allowing 4 20mm bases abreast to pass), the other two have a 2cm wide door.





Next up are the corner segments.

I would definitely say your modeling skills have improved. I can't wait to see them painted.

I prepared all the edge bases, cutting them into shape and bevelling the edges.




The connecting posts and one of the edge posts are glued to all the bases.

The edge sections are done.



The last type of section I wanted to build are end pieces, that only connect on one side to another fence section.









All the sections I wanted to build for now are done, next up is painting them.

This project is sitting on my desk for too long, I need to get this finished.

I painted the to be flocked areas green, the sandy areas brown, the fences and path areas black-brown. The colour on the fences was only applied to soak the wood with cheap DIY store paints, rather than with the expensive model paints I will use to paint them.



The sand areas where then highlighted.



I then started to paint the pebbles and larger sand corns in two greys, which will then be drybrushed in the same light grey.

Great job! I am building fences myself at the moment, though they are more simple and not in the same numbers

LilBroGrendel":1zkjgg3q said:

Great job! I am building fences myself at the moment, though they are more simple and not in the same numbers

Click to expand...

Thank you

I finished painting the stones, then touched up the green.



Here a close-up.



Done

Well... not yet, the main part (the fences themselves) are up next.

I did the first test section. I basecoated the fence in

+ AK783 Weathered Wood

I then added some moss by drybrushing lighty from underneath and around the posts where they meet the ground with

+ 70.968 Flat Green

The wood was then brushed from above with

+ AK787 Medium Grey
+ AK785 Middle Grey
+ AK784 Light Grey





I like the result and think I will go with that as the base colour, especially the half posts where the sections connect. I will vary the colour on the sections, like freshly replaced beams etc, adding washes here and there, but I think this will be the main colour scheme.

As the year draws to a close, I am a bit shocked concerning the number of open projects I have (like every year), and especially this one as it is 1.5 years old... time to finish it.

I painted the rest of the sections, the edge sections were the last to be done.



I then started to apply the grass. It will not be one sort all over, but at least one additional one to my standard base grass. The first I applied is Ziterdes 12133 Alpine Meadow. It has some darker green sand in it as well as light brown rocks.

The fence looks great. I like how you have carved the posts and rails to give it rustic feel.

that looks damn fine. i think one day i will steal this idea when i am building my battle boards.