Making Plastic Pikes and Spears

I'm working my way through my back log of plastic figures at the moment. I found a box of Hat Hoplites, and as you can never have too many hoplites they were next on the list.

The last time I painted any hoplites was a while a go. At that time I was using metal florists' wire to make spears. I experimented with hammering the end flat and then filing it into a point, but honestly it was too much like hard work. My hoplites (and phalangites too) are therefore armed with what looks like, on close inspection, to be 8 foot barge poles.

Since then I have moved over to using the plastic bristles from a yard broom. That's a stiff broom, not a soft one. The diameter of the bristles is the same as the wire I was using, and they take paint just as well.


Handily they come pre-cut to a standard length, which is useful. You just need to snip them off of the broom head when you use them. I use wire cutters for that - easier than a knife - but recently I found it easy to cut off a whole block using a mini tool with a rotary cutting disc.


My all purpose mini multi tool. Bargain in Aldi

When I first started using these I just did the same as I did with the florists wire. This time round, however, I experimented with a bit of modelling on the tips.

I tried this out with the standards on my recent WSS paintjobs. It is really simplicity itself to produce viable looking spearpoints.

All I did was take a pair of pliers and simply squeeze the end flat. Unfortunately this leaves them with a slightly ridged surface, depending on the gripping marks on your pliers. I tried using a vice with a flat covering of the jaws, but it was too fiddly, and in any event, it turns out once you paint them you can't really tell.

The pliers are a small handy pair I got in a set of two from a pound store.
The nail clippers are a large size, bought in a market in Borneo

Anyhow, once you have squeezed them flat use a pair of nail clippers to snip off the sides to make a point. The curved edge of the clippers gives a leaf shape to the spear point. 

Here are my trial spears. The butt ends need tidying up.

And that's it. The work of seconds to produce fairly decent looking spears with spearpoints. This will be my chosen method going forwards, but I don't think I'll go back and replace the original barge poles. At least, not any time soon.

Comments

  1. How easily do they glue to the figures?

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    1. As easy as gluing any polythene based plastic to the same. I've used both normal superglue and UHU succesfully.

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  2. What a brilliant idea. I recently got some Mars figures (Austrian late 17thC and Sobieski's Poles) which come with hard plastic sticks to use for the pikeman; a manufacturer's version of your broom idea!
    Regards, James

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    1. Yes, that plastic strip looks very similar. The reviewers on PSR seem to be fairly unimaginative in terms of its use - although if it is too hard you can't flatten the end the way I've done. Better than casting them on sprues. That never works well.

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    2. I tend to only skim the reviews, especially about Mars figures which he/they does/do not like.
      A few strokes of the modelling knife and I easily had a point. If interested, you can (sort of) see it in an 'in-progress' photo on my Slow Solo Wargaming blog.

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    3. I mostly skim the reviews too. They are helpful for the close up photos and the number of figures mostly. I disagree with them on things like pose numbers and accuracy, but otherwise it's a really useful resource.

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  3. The infernal problem of making spears that are not lethal (metals and pins) and durable and realistic .. sound like you have cracked it. As much as I like my 28mm plastics the spears are "too thick" and I cannot be bothered to "metal them" .. I how from 6' away you don't notice

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    1. I have been very pleased with the results. thanks must go to local gamer Graham Sargeant for putting me on the right path.

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  4. They look good. I might have to try that out.

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    1. I should have said as well - the average broom head gives you nearly 3,000 pikes or spears. That should do most people.

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  5. It's been my go to solution for a while now, although in 6mm I use a small brush to get smaller bristles. I may get in trouble soon as my wife has started to wonder why her favourite brush seems to be going bald!

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  6. My mother never forgot when I used this technique on some Airfix conversions in my teenage days. It would come up whenever my soldier projects were mentioned for decades afterwards.

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    1. Nothing new under the sun. How come I only just worked this out?

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  7. Replies
    1. You're welcome. I will post some pictures of the finished figures in a few days.

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