Wooden Barrels

Wooden Barrels for tabletop games

I love skirmish war games and tabletop dungeon crawls but I need some appropriate dressing to give the minis something to hide behind or climb over.

I decided to make some wooden barrels. Not the easiest thing to make if you have never attempted scratch building before, especially the smaller barrels as they can be quite tricky, but the results are good and these look good on the table. All of these barrels are made using thin cardboard. Cereal packets are cheap and ideal, although make sure the cardboard is flexible and does not split when curled.

General scratch building tools. You will need something to measure and mark out on your thin card, and you will need a metal edge and a sharp knife. A good pair of scissors are also very useful for this build. Glues are of your choice but a general purpose glue works best. You can build using PVA (I did some this way) but you will need to hold everything till the bits stick. You might need some superglue for those tricky straps. Hot glue isn't great for this build. You will also need some cocktail sticks or something to roll the card on.

Cut out strips for the body. The width of the strips will determine the height of your barrel. The length of the strips will determine the width of the barrel. For appropriate sized barrels to fit into 28mm scale, cut strips at approximately 20mm wide and 15cm long for the main body. Cut the strips for the bulge about 1/3 of the width of the main body. Roll the main body strips tightly around a cocktail stick and glue together. Roll the bulge strips around the middle of the body about 2 or 3 times. The more you wrap the bulge strips, the merrier the barrel will be. Glue on the end pieces cut from scrap card.

Score and cut out the staves. The overall width of the staves should be 1mm or 2mm greater than the height of the barrel to provide a lip. This measurement will vary depending on how much of a bulge you have provided. When scoring for the mid section, this should be the same width as the bulge. Trial and error will get you the correct width for the staves, mine are approximately 4mm wide. As the barrels go up and down in height, the stave width should be adjusted accordingly to make it look right. I found it quicker to cut out the notches with scissors than to slice out the notches with a knife. The scissors are not the most accurate, but if you want to mass produce some barrels to throw on the table, then this will be the quickest route.

Once the staves are glued on. Cut out thin strips about 2mm wide and glue on as barrel strapping or banding. Glue one at each end of the staves, and one at each of the score lines near the bulge.

Once the barrels have all been glued together, I gave everything a quick coating of PVA glue to harden up the staves and ensure that everything stays glued together. To finish of the barrels, paint to your liking. Mines are painted with GW spearstaff brown, with a red / brown wash to give a basic wood effect. The banding I have simply painted black. Don't forget to look at pictures of real barrels to get some inspiration.

J