Hey folks, here's how I make barbed wire.

Step 1 - the materials
Find a suitably thin wire to use, in this case I took an old computer cable:



Inside we find thin electrical cables, and in those are the very fine strings I use:



You can use any thin string for this, in fact it you would be better of with a little thicker strings if you intend to use the barbed wire for gaming etc. I'm making mine for a displaypiece so I don't worry about it breaking too much.


Step 2 - the wire
Having collected the one and only material you will need, remove the plastic coating around the strings and cut to desired length (keep in mind that the end result will be a bit shorter than the piece you cut). Take three of them and twine one end together:



Twine the other ends together as well and attach to a needle or a tooth-pick (or anything similar)



Secure the twined end to something and then start spinning the needle or whatever you decided to use, twisting the strings together to desired density. The result will be along these lines:



Super-glue the ends together.


Step 3 - the barbs
Take a single string and wrap it 2 and a half times around the main cable you have produced, then repeat further along the cable, don't worry too much about the distance between them. And don't glue anything just yet.


Now, as you haven't glued anything down (except, if you feel the need, the first twist on the cable) you can move the little twists to desired density, these will be the barbs. When you are satisfied, take a very small amount of super glue and glue each of the twists in place. Now, using a pair of scissors clip of the loops of the single string you twisted around the cable. As you are using a pair of scissors you can try to clip the barbs as close to the cable as possible, because the blades of the scissor will prevent you from clipping it of entirely and you will get the same length on all the barbs.



Step 4 - Do what you want with it
You can coil it around something to get the typical roll-of-barbed-wire look or you can do what I did, attach it to some poles. Or you can... well I'm sure you can think of something yourself, there are plenty of possibilities.

Painted like proper barbed wire, old and rusted, it will look something like this. Note that this piece is still a work in progress.







I simply glued the wire on to the poles and afterwards I took a thin strip of etched brass, leftovers from the FW kits, bent it and glued it on top of the wire and on to the pole so it looks like it's attached properly (very fiddly work).


Lastly, here's a pic for size reference with a guardsman (and GWs barbed wire):

Of course, using thicker string produces thicker wire, it's all a matter of taste

Cheers!
/Dominus Ex Machina

CREDITS
Thanks to Melkor, over at Work In Progress, whos excellent http://z11.invisionfree.com/Work_In_Progress/index.php?showtopic=14841 tutorial inspired me to make this.