6mm ACW post and rail fences

Fences are a very prominent feature on American civil war battlefields and my terrain collection wouldn't be complete without lots of them. The problem is, you really need a lot of them. Looking at detailed terrain research on the era and by leafing through maps on, for example, Maps of Gettysburg, you see that you really can't have enough of them. This means that you have to have a method which is both easy to do and cheap, if you intend on finishing up one day and not paying a kings ransom for a set of fences. So, here's mine:

Nearly two and a half meters of fences but still not nearly enough!

The sections are 18 centimeters long. I wanted to make them divisible by 6 as many elements in 6mm wargaming tend to be 6 centimeters wide. The fence is white 1 mm thick plasticard you can buy from hobby stores. I've cut it into 5mm tall strips using one of those paper guillotine cutters offices have. I then drew the fence graphic on the strip using a black thin-tipped permanent marker. I didn't do a very thorough job, so it will look better if you put some more effort in it. Just remember how many you'll need in the end. 

The finished fence strip was glued to a 2mm thick hobby cardboard using a hot glue gun. The cardboard was a poor choice as it warped a bit, so I suggest using something else. MDF, perhaps?

After the glue was dry I attached some model trees on the bases. Hot glue gun or green stuff both work fine. Then I finished the base with sand, some rocks, flock, static grass and foliage.

Johnny comes marching home

I like the end result, but even this easy method took hours to do and there's still lots more fences to do If I aim to get a "realistic" look for my acw battlefield.