Review - CorSec Engineering Barrier Fence

CorSec Engineering released their first 15mm terrain set this year - the Barrier Fence System.  While it was clearly inspired by a certain prehistoric sci-fi TV series, the CorSec version is designed to work with any 1/16" diameter fencing material.  This allows anything to be used... Terra Nova-style logs, a more conventional steel fence, or even a futuristic energy barrier.  Since I mainly play space opera settings, I chose the latter.

My order consisted of a Gatehouse, four Corner Towers, and eight standard Fence sections.  I figured this would let me stretch a complete fence across a 24" wide game table, or build a smaller rectangular compound. Well, it seems CorSec has discovered an additional wormhole within the United States - my pieces arrived just two days after I ordered them.  Kudos to Jonathan for such quick service!  

The pieces are quite nice.  The laser-cut acrylic is, of course, flawless.  No trimming, cutting, or filing is necessary - simply peel the scratchguard from either side of the pieces.  

Most of the components use tab-and-slot construction.  Superglue worked just fine for me, but I know many of you will use plastic cement.  My only complaint is that there are a couple of "butt joint" connections - the platforms on top of the corner tower and gatehouse.  There's no way to be sure that you're putting them in exactly the "right" place without a tab and slot, but this does give you some extra flexibility.  In fact, if you wanted to have versions with or without the platforms, you could probably accomplish this by using small rare earth magnets instead of gluing the platforms in place.

I sprayed the components with black spray primer after they were assembled.  While this was drying, I started work on my fence material.  I chose red fluorescent Plastruct rods, ordered quite cheaply from from Hobbylink.  After some experimentation, I learned that cutting two at a time with hobby cutters worked pretty well.  It was quicker than cutting them individually, but more than two resulted in some slippage and uneven cuts.  I went with 3" lengths for the standard fence sections.  This left me about 1.5" on each rod, which worked well for the corner platforms.  

The primer on the fence components had tried by the time I was done cutting the rods.  I gave each section a light coat of Vallejo black, then highlighted the edges with Model Master Euro Gray.  

Assembling the fence was a bit fiddly, but I eventually got the hang of it.  For the wall sections, I found it was best to thread the rods through both sides of the fence, then spread the sections apart.  I left one section loose in the middle of the rods while gluing them flush to the other section.  Once the flush edge dried, I could glue the loose section and trim off any bits that were hanging over.  The platforms and sliding gate were a bit easier to assemble since they had a fixed width.  It was simply a matter of gluing the rods flush to one side, clipping the excess off the other side, and securing them into place.

It took just one evening to get everything finished.  I threw a small compound together, based around a couple electrical box buildings from Micropanzer, to try running a quick assault scenario.  

Here's a close up of the gatehouse.  There's enough room on the platform for 2-3 figures, depending on your bases.

And the corner towers.  Perfect for a single sniper, or even a small heavy weapon drone.

This was a nice addition to my terrain collection.  I'll pick up another set eventually, and build that one with stained wooden dowels to work for lower-tech settings.

Cheers,

Chris