Making Snake Fencing

Making snake fencing an easy guide to follow. Snake fencing, or Worm fence, was a staple of the North American landscape for hundreds of years. With plenty of readily available timber, rough cut beams were simply stacked on top of each other and set at right angles for stability. No North American battlefield from the French Indian War (FIW), American War of Independence (AIW), to the American Civil War (ACW) should be without these.

Fences of all types have often played important roles on many battlefields. Sometimes they can offer shelter to troops that can get to them first, but they can also affect the movement troops. 

Making Snake Fencing

1. The first step is to cut your bases to the desired size either using MDF or hardboard in my case I used hardboard and cut it to 1 inch wide by 6 inch long once you have cut your bases to the desired size you then want to proceed to rasp the edges to give it a smoother appearance.

2. The next step is to paint your cut pieces of hardboard with Polycell Textured Ceilings Course Effect.

3. Once this is dry paint all the base with Humbrol No. 110 Natural Wood, allow to dry and then lightly dry brush with Humbrol No. 103 Cream.

4. The next step is to varnish your bases with Ronseal Diamond Hard Varnish, matt clear.

5. The next step is to make a template. I did this by using one of the hardboard bases and by drilling 10 holes into the hardboard where the snake fencing posts would fit. Once you have made your template you can then proceed, by putting it on top of your finished bases and using the pre-drilled holes you can easily drill through to the base underneath.

6. The next stage is to prepare your cocktail sticks. I actually used the container they came in, instead of painting each cocktail stick individually I just poured a tin of Humbrol No. 67 Tank Grey into the cocktail stick container. And put the lid back on and shook it until all the cocktail sticks had been covered.

7. Once the cocktail sticks had been painted I then stuck them into some foam board and let them to dry.

8. The next step was to trim the point of the cocktail sticks and then using a glue gun stick them into the pre-drilled holes.

9. Once you have glued all of the snake fencing posts you can then trim them to the height you wish.

10. The next stage is to actually stick the cocktail sticks into place I used superglue.

11. Once you're snake fencing is complete you then need to paint it. I used Humbrol No. 160 German Camouflage Red Brown and then lightly dry brushed with Humbrol No. 103 Cream.

12. The Last stage is to add Noch Summer Meadow Grass.

Tools

Pencil

Tape measure

Wood saw

Rasp

Paintbrushes

Drill

Cutters

Craft knife

Materials

Hardboard

Polycell Textured Ceilings Course Effect

Ronseal Diamond Hard Varnish, matt clear

Noch Summer Meadow Grass

PVA glue

Superglue

Cocktail sticks 

Humbrol Colours

Humbrol No. 110 Natural Wood

Humbrol No. 103 Cream

Humbrol No. 67 Tank Grey

Humbrol No. 160 German Camouflage Red Brown