Barbed Wire from Plastic Army Men Playsets

I picked up barbed wire stands a couple months ago at a game store auction. They're from a plastic army men kit similar to what you might find in the toy section of your typical drugstore. They were half-finished, with two pieces glued to 16 large tongue depressors, with sand on the base.

I'd been meaning to create something similar with some fencing I had, but this project was already halfway done and I probably spent less than $5 to complete these barbed wire strips.

I sprayed them heavily with Krylon Fusion Camo Flat Black, which bonds to soft plastics. Then it was a simple matter of dark and light brown drybrushing on the sand, dark metallic gunmetal dry brush on the fences and a bit of rusty orange (it came out looking brown, but whatever…), followed by a matte spray.

Even though they are all identical, it's a nice useful bit of terrain for any of the sci-fi or post-apoc games we play, and with 16 of them, I can surround just about any large bit of terrain I have.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member