40k Terrain

If you do a search on 40k terrain barbed wire (maybe that’s how you got here), you’re going to find a lot of matches. There will be some videos, too. However, I’m not happy with any of them. The scale is either too large or the barbs appear sloppy or the methods shown take too much effort to make a reasonable amount. However, I did find one good video on YouTube with a great technique; and I was able to improve on it a bit. One key thing, however, is that I didn’t add barbs. At the scale of Warhammer, barbs would only be about 1/60th of the height of an Imperial Guard soldier. That’s just too small to worry about. So, I didn’t.

First, inspiration. A GREAT search on Google is “barb wire defensive position” in image mode. You are going to get some great examples of how barb wire can actually be used. Here are some of the best.

The best YouTube video I found:

JollyAngus makes barbed wire

My method is derived from JollyAngus. The biggest difference is I used an eye-hook and a drill chuck on my Dremel. I used 28 gauge copper wire I happened to have around; something harder might have worked better. I took a bit lest than two arm lengths, folded it over, a loop in the end that I then attached to the eye hook. Run your fingers down both halves together and make sure there are no kinks or knots. Then hold the Dremel in one hand, both sides of the wire in the other as far as you can reach away from the Dremel. Turn it on low (best to pulse it) and watch it twist until you have it wound to your preference. It really is that easy. I made probably 16 feet of barb wire this way in less than 10 minutes!

This is sufficient if you are going to make entanglements that cover a field (perhaps under Warhammer 40k rules these make dangerous area terrain?) If you’re going to make coiled wire to put on top of chain link fences, attach to fence posts, or make a barrier (like shown above) you need one more step. I wrapped the wire around a pencil. Then I ended up with a nice coil of wire. I think the pencil should have been higher — it should almost waste high compared to an Imperial Guard soldier to look proper for 40k scenery.

Make sure to prime and then probably dry brush Boltgun Metal if new or Tin Bitz if old wire. As you can see, the result is superb — it’ll work great for my command post 40k terrain project! It should work great on bases for models, too. Enjoy!