Making Fences

I'm currently working on scenery that can be used in a modern (or wild west or even post apocalyptic) setting or fantasy setting. Standard stuff like these hand made fences.

Choose your post. I grabbed a rubber banded bundle of 15 of these at a yard sale for $1.00.

The guy tried to tell me they were hand carved. I looked them over and I asked him if the bar code on the bottom was "hand painted". Anyway...

Cut them to the desired size.

I recommend sanding them to give it a flatter edge. It'll help keep them straight when you base them. I, also, recommend grabbing a sander like this. It's nice. I bought this beauty (the Sand-It) online at www.micromark.com. I also grabbed a Duplicate-It. Which I recommend.

Then I soak them in a watered down black paint bath. You don't have to leave them in there for very long. Also, as a side note, you don't want to mix up to much as the mixture starts to stick after awhile.

Set them somewhere to dry for at least a few hours. You don't want the water interfering with the glue. If you're in a hurry, set them under a lamp to speed up the drying process.

I am currently working on a more sophisticated version of this (I have a tray that I've glued a ruler too and plan on getting some double sided tape to lay down). But for now the duct tape dopes the trick just fine. It helps keep things lined up and makes it MUCH easier to glue together. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one to have an issue with objects sticking to my fingers better than the glue can hold.

Add your glue drops.

Then your fence pieces.

Clean up the excess glue.

And place something heavy and flat on it so it dries straight.

When it's dry you can trim off the extra over hang of the fance and add your bases ( I use clear plastic, post on that coming soon). And add any extras at this point, like grass, bushes, tall grass, etc.

And finally...