Little Big Men for Pendraken?

[notmatthew]

Those look great!  What models are those? Are those spears wire?

[DanJ]

Thanks for the kind words.

They are Old Glory 10mm Greek Mercenary Hoplites from their Macedonian range.

Like many of the OG 10mm the figures don't have a cast on weapon, instead you have to drill out the hand using a 0.6mm drill (there is a suitably large hand supplier with a small recess to help centre your drill) and supply your own spears.  I use 1" dress makers pins with the heads removed and the points flattened and ground to a suitable leaf shape.

This is quite a lot of boring and repetitive work before you get to even prime the figures but I think it's worth it because:

1) The spears are in better proportion to the size of the figures and look nicer.
2) You can vary the length of the spear by using 0.5mm brass wire to make longer spears for mounting flags.
3) Your opponents and others using you figures treat them with respect, generally after the second or third painful mishandling.

Here's the process with on a Pendraken Arab Conquest Cavalryman, I had to add an extra stage of removing the cast on spears



And the final result with the finished Arabs facing off against a unit of Pendraken Knights who've also been re-armed.

[DanJ]

Oh and reason

4) The steel or brass spears are much less likely to bend and look cr@p (I really don't like bent spears on figures) 

[Techno]

That's dedication, Dan.  .......They look great !!

As one of the sculptors........My dearest (and quite impossible) wish, is that there happened to be some sort of metal 'amalgam'.....With a very, very low melting point......Which flowed  so easily through a mould, that I, (and my peers) could make 'weapons' of more realistic 'widths', without giving the casters problems.

But......Once my imaginary amalgam had set.......It would be as strong as 'steel'.

Cheers - Phil (I can dream, can't I ?) 

[DFlynSqrl]

That's a lot of work!  But it looks worth it. 

[notmatthew]

Thanks for the info!  I ordered a few units of Pendraken's Macedonian Pikemen but those were the only open handed ancients I found.  I do not like the look of bendy pikes.

[DanJ]

As one of the sculptors........My dearest (and quite impossible) wish, is that there happened to be some sort of metal 'amalgam'.....With a very, very low melting point......Which flowed  so easily through a mould, that I, (and my peers) could make 'weapons' of more realistic 'widths', without giving the casters problems.

I once picked up some 25/28mm hand weapons, including lances and swords, which were cast in some sort of very hard alloy so could be quite delicate but I don't know who produced them