Some Scenery.

Having started my Civil War project a while back, I found I didn't have any specific scenery to go with it. I had plenty of trees, hills, orchards, stone walls, and other generic type scenery, but I lacked any era appropriate buildings and the types of fences and walls for the period. WWII buildings wouldn't cut it. At the last Cold Wars I picked up a few of the old JR Miniatures 28mm ACW buildings. These would be the start of a Civil War era farm. To go with them I needed some snake rail fences, the ubiquitous fencing found all over America from the 1700s through the 20th century. And I needed a ton of them. From what I have seen of period paintings, photos, and other wargaming projects...these things were everywhere. They lined every road and field you could find. The problem is, I didn't want to pay for any custom built ones or buy the expensive pre-made ones...so I had to find a fast, easy, and decent looking way of doing them myself.

Fortunately, my wife is a good cook.

She was making kebobs a few months back and I found that the bamboo kebob skewers she was using were the perfect size. Plus they were cheap and came in a pack with tons of the things.

To make them, I made a template on a 1" wide strip of Basswood with a mark every 2". Then I laid out the pattern using this grid. After that, it was time to cut what seemed like thousands of 2" pieces. It took a long time, but once done, the fences came together fast by gluing down the rails using the template. My snake rail fences are 3 rails high, which I felt was high enough for my 28mm minis. I plan on next doing some rock and rail fences, but haven't decided how to tackle that yet...

Also, the JR Miniatures buildings are hollow, but the roofs don't come off. That is unless you take a hacksaw to them. Which I did. It was a pain, but now the roofs lift off so I can put minis inside. The interior casting is too rough to build interior details, but it will be ok for my purposes. I don't feel like making or buying 28mm ACW era furniture anyway. That would just be obsessive...

Here are the pics.

I am going to call my generic ACW farm "Markey Farm" after my grandparents family who came here in 1732 and had a farm in the York County area of Pennsylvania.

Markey Farm House:



Markey Barn:



Snake Rail Fences. I need about 100 feet more of these: