How to make Pikemen out of Empire Spearmen
By: Ricky Duelley aka “Nifty”
The following is how I built my Pike-men for my DoW army. It is a somewhat lengthy process, but I think the results are great and worth the time.
Just one thing before you begin:
READ THE WHOLE article before you start to even collect supplies.
The supplies required and recommended.
++Standard Empire spear men (see pictures below). Games
Workshop Store Link.
++Brass rod (you decide on the size but get several lengths, see pictures)
++Pliers to cut the rod
++Rare earth magnets (have to fit under the bases)
++Xacto knife, files, pin vise with bits, cutting board and green stuff
++Piece of thin magnetic metal (for movement tray)
The first step is to prep the standard pike-men.
1) Cut the pike-men from the sprue along with the matching arms. Then
trim the mold lines off the pike-men and arms and glue him to a base.
2) Next remove the spear from his hands using the Xacto and pin vice,
see below.
**SAVE THE SPEAR YOU WILL NEED THE TIP LATER ON!**
I first cut the spear shaft down and then used the pin vice to drill
out the shaft from his hand, if the hand gets to badly damaged you have
the option of re-sculpting his hand after the new pike is in place, or
just ignoring it as there will be many of his fellow pike-men all around
him!
Since there are several types of ‘standard’ pike-men, here
is the second type of pike-men I made.
I first cut the spear shaft down and then drilled out the hands the same way as above. I kept the top hand separate and pinned it in after the new pike was in place, see pictures below.
***DO NOT GLUE his hand in yet this will create a problem when you arm him with his new pike!***
The next spearman is marching with the pike over his shoulder.
This is by far the easiest one to make.
First cut the pike down as far as you can with the clippers and then
drill out the rest, see picture below.
Now you have to make the new pikes. I choose my length for realism; it is fairly long and requires that the models be magnetically secured to their movement trays to prevent tipping over.
In order to pick the diameter of the pike I took one of the spears I cut off to my hobby center and simply matched up the brass rod with the spear I had in hand. I apologize for not making a note of what diameter I used.
Next cut off the tip of one of your saved spears right below the fur, and drill out the fur using the pin vise and a drill bit that is the diameter (or as close as you can get) of the brass rod you choose for the pike shaft and TEST fit, see pictures below.
Next cut the brass rod to your desired length for your pikes, I made mine 5.5 to 6 inches long! Then glue the spear tip onto the pike to complete the new weapon.
Finally TEST fit a new pike in one of the spear-men’s hands and
adjust the fit by using the Xacto knife to shave some material form the
spear-men’s hands, chest or where ever. Then when you are satisfied
with the fit glue the pike into place,
*****Take note of the way the fur is going in order to give the model
the proper sense of motion.*****
See pictures below:
Now build away and Good Luck!!!!!!!