Terrain Making - Entrenchment & Barbed Wire Markers

This weekend I made some hasty entrenchment and barbed wire markers.  The goal was to make something that was a bit scale agnostic and could work for 6 to 15mm gaming.  Their first use will be a re-running of the Battle of Tashihchiao from the Russo-Japanese War tomorrow night.  That game will be another "Zoom-Tabletop Game" but more on that in another post.

The design idea for the entrenchments comes from the 6mm-terrain tips website, which is run by a fellow club member, Greg.  The Bard wire concept came from another club member, Ed, who used it to scenic some 6mm WW1 bases he painted up.  I rarely have unique ideas of my own and am happy to steal from others.

The tutorial on the 6mm website recommends using paintable window caulking as the material to paint.  I had some laying around and cut bases from strathmore board (picture frame backing) to 10 x 60mm in dimension.  Why strathmore board ?- I had it lying around and it's easy to cut.  Why 60mm widths? - because thats the width of my 6mm civil war bases and these stands need to work across both multiple scales (6 to 15mm) and periods (Naps to WW2).  OK maybe no barbed wire until the R-J War.

When working with caulk, it's important to put down a sheet of wax paper or you'll have a really sticky mess.  Also have some water close by to wet your fingers while shaping the material.

I did a quick paint up of the entrenchments and then realized that these just wouldn't work.   There is no ground texture to the caulk so they appear way to smooth.  I don't want to add ground foam as these need to work in different climates / seasons.

Sometimes projects don't work the first few times you try - especially with terrain projects.  Don't get mad - it's a learning opportunity and figure out a different way. 

It turned to an old friend in this terrain making time of need....

 Mr pre-mixed, flexible and tinted tile grout (Mr T-G, for short).  Good old Mr. T-G has bailed me out of innumerable terrain making quandaries and, I'm happy to say, he didn't let me down this time.

To paraphrase Homer Simpson, "Oh Tile Grout, is there nothing you cant do?"  Bonus points if you can mention the item Homer is speaking of in the original line below in the comments.  No googling 'cause that's cheating

I cut out some 20x40mm bases for the barbed wire and covered them with a very thin layer of the tile grout.  There a huge difference between the texture of the caulked bases vs the ones with tile-grout.

I made some new entrenchment bases.  When working with tile grout the drying time seems to lengthen exponentially based on layer thickness - try to keep it as thin as possible.  I used some 2 inch long wooden sticks as a substrate and then covered them with the grout

It took me about 30 minutes to redo the bases and apply the grout.  I then left them to dry over night and

painted and washed them with a black ink wash.  I'm very happy with how they came out.

With the entrenchments done, it wash time to make some barbed wire.  I cut a 9 inch section of 18 gauge copper wire, and stripped the insulation covering.  Once the wire was exposed I unwound individual strands to make "barbed wire"

After extensive research into the history and provenance of barbed wire, I determine the exact scale diameter to make the loops.  As all of you know by now, historical precision is the hallmark of all my work and gameplay.  Using my workshop calipers, I found the exact diameter brush I need and then wound the wire around it to create loops.  Yes that's exactly what I did.  Well, either that or I just grabbed a random brush to make the loops.  I'll let you decide.

 With the wire loops made - I turned to a product I used during the dark days of my sojorn into  model railroading - it's called "Blacken-It" and it does what it says to metals.  I cut the looped wire into 35mm lengths (+/-) and dropped them in the solution and a few minutes later I've got black barbed wire.

Please be careful with this stuff as it is highly toxic if ingested.  Also, as a precaution against our idiot President making future pronouncements, Blacken-It has no effect on COVID-19 either when appleid externally or ingested.  Like other household disinfectant, such as bleach or Lysol, one should not ingest these items.  Of course, if you need to be convinced not to listen to the Orange Moron, then well I'm not sure you can read so these warnings may go over your head. 

My apologies for the slight rant, but as the spouse of a medical professional who is treating patients during this time, I have developed nothing but contempt and disdain for the current idiot in the Whitehouse and his duped supporters.

Let's get back to miniatures, shall we?

Once blackened, the wire is attached to the base with a few drops of super glue.

 and - boom - I've got 28 bases of barbed wire

I'm very happy with how this project turned out.

Hopefully, you'll see these markers used on all sorts of games in the near future.

Stay safe and healthy