ideas needed

[MikeS]

Hi all, i'm the new guy. I'm building my third n layout and am stuck on building a board fence. It's for going along the track on a curve and dividing a propety. I'll need about an actual foot in length and about 8 scale foot tall too. I've been searching through my old MR magazines and even tons of sites (thats how i found this site) and can't seem to find any info on fencing.
thanks

mike

 

[upguy]

Buy a box of flat toothpicks, and build your own fence. You can't beat the price! As long as you can keep the nitpickers from climbing all over it and complaining that the splinters are not to scale, you should be able to paint it and blend it into the scenery without a problem. That's my two cents worth!

 

[billk]

Welcome Mike -
Here's another idea:

- Get a piece of stiff paper, like maybe an index card or a cigarette carton, that looks about right as far as the thickness of the boards

- Emboss the spaces between the boards onto it. You'll have to experiment a little to figure out the best thing to use to do that.

- Paint/stain/color it (more experimentation!)

- Let us know what works and how it turns out!

Bill K

 

[Drew1125]

Hi Mike!Welcome to the Gauge!
There are several plastic structure kits in N scale that feature fencing as a detail part...If you don't have any in your scrap box, see if you can get your hand on some HO fences from Centra Valley. The picket fence in that set is good for an N scale board fence. You could also scribe your own out of wood, or styrene.
Good Luck...Let us know what you come up with.

 

[MikeS]

Thanks for the info. I might try the cigarette box idea, as there are enough of them around the house. I'll give it a try and let y'all know how it works.
I already tried a small mock up of the tooth pick thing and the kids already started with the complaining that it isn't right.
to them.

 

[shamus]

Hi Mike, welcome to the gauge,
You could make your own fences out of stripwood for N-scale or H0, I use 1/8" by 1/64" wood cut down the middle to make mine, here's a photo (Bottom left is the fence.
Shamus

 

[sumpter250]

Mike,
First you need a pair of foils,,,,,,,,,,,
Not to sound like a putdown, but, are there any fences in your community that look like what you want?
All the suggestions above sound good. If you have acces to a hobby shop that resells used equipment, the decks from flatcars make great fences, and would be the right height (8'6"). You'd probably need four cars to do the fence you want.

 

[MikeS]

Ok, i have it now. I tried the cigarette box idea and i didn't like the way it was turning out. So i tried the 1/8" square wood idea split down the middle (thanks shamus) and tied together on the side not seen, it looks very good and convincing, but very time consuming. I have about 3" finished so far. I think i'll go this route.

Sumpter: no i don't have any fences that look like what i want to do. Why?

 

[sumpter250]

Mike,
Why? Jealousy. When I first started out in the hobby, dirt hadn't been invented yet, and for sure the internet and forums like these didn't exist, so I had to find out how to build models by studying the prototype. No offense intended (no pun either).