What's the mesh made from?

new fence

good job yeh what is the mesh made from

More Photos.

The "mesh" is a fabric called TULLE.  More commonly known as "wedding veil" fabric.  I found a roll at the thrift store for a dollar.  That will give several lifetime supplies of fencing.

I still need to weather it a bit as I just painted it gray for now using automotive primer.  Then I'll actually glue it down and scenic around it.

The fabric............Tulle!

Here is how I got it and a close up shot.

Looks good .

 What gauge is the wire ?

                                                  Choo

Foam core

 I also use the foamcore sheets for a lot of things around my layout , Easy to obtain , lightweight , cuts straight. I see you are using it as a temp base for your fence. Don't get it too wet though .

 Iv'e been experimenting with it for my coal hopper's as a load base .  I cut it to size and install post's inside the corners so it will sit at the proper height in the car . I paint these post's black or to match the cars interior. I then carve with a razor knife the angle of the load down the side's and ends to get shape to it.  I glue with CA a 1/2 " steel washer to the bottom side and test it with a magnet . Must is to get it to fit , and yet pull out with magnet easily.

( I also take the the plastic loads that come with some cars and trim the down a little and add magnets to them )

 Then I brush on Elmers white glue full stength and dip it into any color medium / fine ballast in an old athearn loco box.  Let dry 24 hrs . I tried coal out of the bag DON"T DO THIS.. Its too oily. Make sure you set these out on a flat surface

 then paint black with ( I use the camo black ) flat paint and it looks pretty good.  Works well on ballast loads , aggregate loads. 

    Next imaginary Project is to deign a belt w magnets on it , inside a customer that picks up loads automaticaly

                                                                                                        Choo

Coal!

I don't use real coal for my loads.  What I use is "play sand" for sand art.  It comes in several colors but I use only black for my loads.  Foam core is used as a base, painted black or very dark grey on boat sides.  This is to prevent warp of the foam core.  As you can see in the photo of the fence, the foam core curves upward.  I only painted it on the top side to hold the fence in place.  I will post a few photos of my coal loads so you can see how I made those.

The facility you see in the background is a grain facility.  I have a string of 6 coal hoppers that I run as through freight on the layout.  Loads one way and empty the other.

Wire!

I used 24 gauge copper coated wire for making beaded jewelry.  It comes in a roll and needs to be stretched to be straightened out.  Cut all your pieces to lenght and assemble them on a flat surface and solder your joints.

Do they make N scale tulle?

Do they make N scale tulle? You HO guys have it so easy... !

I've used tulle for N scale

I've used tulle for N scale fencing a number of times. If you get the "silver" (usually a light to medium gray) you won't need to paint the fence at all after you build it.  It's available in several colors, including the dark green you often see where they want to reduce the visibility of the fence. It's smaller mesh that the usual netting. If you want to have some rusty spots, use orange or burnt umber art markers to "stain" the netting after it's attached to the fence, but before it's installed..

The best way I've found to build the fence is to make a jig on a yard stick, using 3/4" wide basswood to set the spacing between posts. I make the posts over-long, and have a top bar on the jig to set the height of the posts to include the risers for the barbed wire top. Circuit board buss wire from Radio Shack works great for the posts and bars... pretinned and ready for soldering. Stretch it to straighten before using, of course. Use a toothpick to apply solder paste to the joints for the cleanest work.

If you're making a small fence, or special pieces like gates, draw them on paper and cover them with double sided tape to hold the wire in place while you solder.

When the fence posts and runs are finished, cut a strip of the tulle and tape it to the table at either end of the fence, stretched only a little bit. Use thin super glue, applied with a pinpoint or toothpick to the posts through the tulle, to attach it. I drop a 1/4 nut on each panel after I apply the glue to keep it in contact until the glue dries.

The longest single piece of fence I made this way was over 5 feet in length (over 800 feet in N scale!) for a club layout in Orlando. I use a fly tying bobbin to apply 10/0  fly tying thread for the barbed wire AFTER the fence is installed - there's no point in worrying about the barbs in N scale, they'd be completely invisible anyway. Leave the post wires long enough and you can just push them into the terrain to install the fence. It's flexible enough to follow most terrain contours, but remember it's made with straight bars, not curved... use needle nose pliers to make the appropriate bends.

Don't forget to add diagonal bracing at the corners and ends of freestanding sections, and an occassional horizontal bar in the middle if it looks right.

The only example I have in one piece at the moment is a 4 foot high fence between the parking lot and the train station on one of my BeNdTrack modules. I'll see if I can find a picture of it and post it. I might have to go out to the trailer and shoot some pictures.

EtA: Even better... I found a link to the archive of a tutorial I wrote several years ago for a now-vanished web site...  but they got it all.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060222215140/http://home.mindspring.com/~filker/Fences/MakeFence.html

Update: I rescued the tutorial, added to it, and reposted it on the here on the T-Trak Wikidot site for easier access.

Thanks a lot for providing

Thanks a lot for providing the link to that tutorial!

N-scale chain link fence

Michael,

Check out the following thread that touches on chain link fence material including that for use in N-scale from earlier this year:

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/13402

specifically the link in the following post might be of value:

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/13402#comment-102309

-Yaron.

Tea bags

Not to rain on your parade, Nelson.

All you want to know about chain link fencing

http://www.hooverfence.com/manual/chainlink/install3.htm

The link gives pole spacing and the above chart gives height.

Bernd

I was wondering?

Yes Bruce, the spacing is a bit wide.  I actually spaced them at 20' scale feet.  I revisited our fencing here at work and 10' is more appropriate so I will add an upright in between the existing posts.  Also, thank you Bernd for the link and charts.  This will help for future reference.

I will repost some photos with the new spacing when I complete it.

Glue

Nelson- Great job on the fencing. that looks really realistic. I've built these types of fences before and they just look good because when gluing the tule onto the wire frame it doesn't sit flat on it because I'm guessing I was using the wrong type of glue. What type of glue did you use? Did you use accelerator with it? Thanks.

Just good ole' CA glue.

Used CA to glue the fabric onto the wire.  No accelerator used. 

Gluing your wire

I have found that Super 77 spray glue works wonders for attaching Tulle. I spray the fabric with a few coats of  silver paint, that seems to stiffen it up a bit, and lay it out on a table. My poles and rails were soldered up out of brass or steel wire, laid down on a sheet of newspaper and given a heavy coat of Super 77. If you hold the can perpendicular to the fence frame you'll get a nice coating on one side of the frame only. Then just pick up the frame and lay it, glue side down, onto the Tulle. Let this set up for a few minutes then trim off the excess fabric with a SHARP knife.

It works a charm.

P.S. I modeled this fence as if parts of it were taken down, hence the concreted poles and other bits lying around.

Fence Scene

Rick,

Love the fence scene with all the posts and rolled fencing laying around. Very realistic. So realistic in fact that it accurately demonstrates how incorrectly many posts are concreted into the ground. The flare in the concrete at the top of the hole is a no-no. Creates a perfect wedge for frost to push the pole up. When the hole is dug it should be spaded at the bottom to create an inverted cone. Ever since my frost pushing fence posts disaster I have become quite knowledgeable about setting posts.

Alan, I couldn't agree more

There's probably not a lot of folks that would pick up on that. I once spent a summer at an agricultural research station pulling up old fencing and installing new stuff. We were told that if somebody tore out our work it should look like a ball of concrete on the end of the post, not the inverted cone that you spoke of. The vast majority of the poles we pulled out, however, had the typical "cone" shape, a shape that I would see consistently since then.

You brought back some old memories Alan. Thank you.

General comment

I really enjoy all the information I read here - I only ask that the submitters please mention the scale it is made for.

Thx in advance.

JB