Wow!! This has turned into a truly awesome thread! I would have never thought of chiffon and I really like the look of it too!! It's almost like chain link privacy fencing. And Rob, did you make that little guard house from scratch or was it a kit? I have been thinking about getting one just like it but cannot find one.
Regrettably, a concession to being able to produce the barbed wire that is only .0025" thick. The first one I did that had the arms spaced with the posts, the wire always broke and the yield was 0%.
Good stuff comes at a price... The cost of etched metal items is often worth the added expense. However, my thoughts are that there may be some middle ground here. I happen to like the fence with barbed wire on top... but... not when you get about 200'-300' (n scale feet) total for "X" dollars. If I could get 1000'-1500' etched posts and gates for the same "X" dollars... then the labor intensive use of chiffon/tulle isn't quite as attractive an option. Afterall... you still need to account for posts and gates with the chiffon/tulle method. So Bob [Traincat]... is there a way to make more linear feet of fence posts with barbed wire... say... without the etched mesh area; and NOT increase the current price. Perhaps a more modular approach which makes better use of the 'meshed' area to be posts & gates instead. This way allows the modeler to use the chiffon/tulle added to the etched posts and gates? FYI: Silver Organza costs $14.00 for 5' x 15' (75 sqft)... imagine fencing your entire layout.
Once you include the posts, you might as well include the fence too as it would consume the same amount of material. However, if just the top barbed wire and arms were produced, you would achieve a middle ground (sort of ...). The time in labor would still be high though. The builder would still have to cut the material, build a frame from .010" wire, attach the material and finally attach the barbed wire/arm strip. I realize that stainless steel fence products that I and BLMA produce are not inexpensive, but are a time saving. As stated, it comes down to a decision of the modeler where that fine line between costs and practical usage exists. Joe, if I had to do 1500 scale feet of fence and it did not reside right on the front of the layout, I too would be finding other methods.
I am scratch building about 800 scale feet of 12 foot security fence with razor wire on top...to fence in the "NMRA Compliance Headquarters" ! :tb-wacky: Anyone have any old click pens they wanna donate the springs out of...LOL :tb-biggrin: .
I think that's a pretty good take on all this. My usual inclination is to try to support folks that support the hobby... Like Bob and other vendors (especially the smaller ones). Without those folks sticking their financial necks out to bring us terrific products, we'd probably have a lot fewer vendors and products available to N-scalers.
I've had no luck at making fence...regardless of what I use... the posts always look rotten... I like the metal pre made.....
Steve...YES...I am semi-serious...lol. :tb-biggrin: I figure I need about 60 !! I have about 12...:tb-wacky: I am going to put all 5 feet of the fence up...and then solder the springs on...one at a time...as I get more. It may look funny for awhile...but at least the Ninja compound will be fenced...lmao !!:tb-biggrin: .
Economics aside, I scratchbuilt my fence simply because nobody was offering ten-foot-high security fencing at the time. Also, the (roughly 4-foot-long) fence on my module follows a curve in the track and goes up and down hills, which would have been more difficult with etched fencing: When using chiffon to make chain-link, a rotary cutter will give much cleaner edges than a knife or scissors will. I ended up spray-painting lavender-colored chiffon gray (since "galvanized" wasn't an available color choice, but the additional stiffness the paint gave to the chiffon actually made the strips easier to work with. It's scratchbuilt, but not especially intricate, and certainly a bit of a "3-foot-rule" model: It's printed paper glued over acetate, then folded up into a box, and decorated with styrene strip for the vertical posts and sheet styrene for the roof. (There's also an air conditioner, which is just another bit of painted-up styrene, that wasn't yet added in this picture.) I used this company's designs for inspiration: PortaFab Guard Booths, Guard Shacks, and Security Buildings (Check the PDF files for drawings and dimensions.)
