09 June 2007

Spears for the legions

The Tekumel minis from Eureka do not come with spears, so I had to come up with a solution so my troops did not take the field sans weapons. Eureka had the great foresight to include cast spearheads for the Serqu troops, so all they need are shafts, but the Ever-Present Glory troops are not so fancy.

So, I rummaged around in my stock of bits-and-pieces, looking for a way to solve this dilemma. And, I found this:


A bag of plastic rod! I have no idea how long this bag has been in my possession, but no matter - it fits the bill. The pieces are just about 14" long, so I then cut the rod into seven 2" lengths. For the spearhead (for the EPG), I then placed a tip of the rod into a set of pliers and gave it a good squeeze to flatten it. Some trimming and filing ensued, and this is how they looked afterward:


Start to finish, left to right. After finishing the tip, I cut the end of the shaft to give a final length of 50 mm.

Here is how one of the Ever-Present Glory minis looks with a real weapon:


The diameter of this rod is just slightly larger than the socket for the Serqu speartip, but that can be easily solved by drilling out the socket, and perhaps by filing down one end of the shaft to fit. I do wonder about the ruggedness of the plastic; will it stand up to actual game-play? Maybe I should have gone with brass rod...


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3 comments:

  1. I think the plastic rod should hold up well, with only the concern of paint flaking.

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  2. Neat... I will have to try this out.. I have a pile of Old Glory Dark Ages guys that didn't come with spears.

    Thanks.

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  3. This is an awesome tip--much faster thn the brass rods I use. I'll need to make a unit with this spear type.

    Thanks for the great tip.
    Donald~

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