Scenery: pigs and pig pen

When ordering blue foam for my previous scenery project I also picked up these pigs made by Mini Monsters.

I figured the chubby chaps needed somewhere to live, so set out to make them a little pig pen. I thought a wattle fence would fit well with my feudal Japanese stuff, so I had a quick google to see if anyone had tried to scratch build these. Luckily for me, at least two people had. I found a tutorial using paper over at Do You Have A Flag? and one using plastic-coated metal wire over at Worlds in Miniature. For my wattle fences I took elements from both tutorials with some alterations of my own.

I started by cutting out a base from a sheet of polystyrene. I then cut thin strips of blue foam which would hold the fence posts. I glued these strips to the base and then covered them in a thin layer of wall filler. While the filler was still wet, I pressed bits of cocktail stick into the foam which would serve as the fence posts. The ends of the cocktail sticks were dipped in wood glue for some added strength. I let this dry overnight. For the wattle part of the fences I used one continuous strand of sisal twine which I fed through the posts alternating the direction each row.

A quick work-in-progress shot of the piece. 

I then soaked the sisal twine in diluted wood glue. Halfway through this process I noticed that three of the corner posts were starting to bend inwards a little. If I ever decide to make some more fences I clearly need to come up with a better way to fix the posts to the base. For now, though, the problem was easily fixed with some hot glue. After the diluted wood glue had dried I gave everything a coat of white wood primer, which really stiffened everything up. I then painted the base dark brown. The fence itself was painted light brown, given a black and a dark brown wash and finally a drybrush of the same light brown I used for the base colour.

The finished result. Don’t the pigs look happy in their new home?