@ Minuteman: a fine body of troops & no-one could quibble with your pikes.

I did check out the local hardware store for a suitable broom head & it wasn't all that cheap @ $15. The florist wire came in packs of 30 lengths about 35cms long for $4.50 so dearer per pike but not outrageously so.

I think I'm over painting masses of figures in a short time, so the Pyrrhic project will take many, leisurely & enjoyable months before the army hits the wargames' table.

donald

@Paintdog/donald,

Thanks. It sounds as if florists wire is a bargain price in your part of the world, broom heads a little less so. The wire will, I am sure, give a good result and as you observe it is the mass effect of the long pikes that makes a difference visually: I seriously doubt that anyone is going to be cheeky enough to measure your phalanx's pikes once they are on the tabletop!

I know what you mean about taking your time over masses of troops. My current project (Thirty Years War) involves a lot of pikemen...around 250 when I counted the figures up a few days ago...and many of these have required broom bristle pikes. Thankfully, I am now through the 'pike making-fixing-securing-undercoating phase'; I now simply have a lot of figures to paint.:grinning:

And all this just as the Strelets WoSS cavalry sets are hitting the retailers!

I have a phalanx of 36 figures to paint: I feel like a beginner to your masses.

donald

Ah, but it's quality not quantity that counts! And hardly a 'beginner' either! Good luck with the phalanx.:relaxed:

I don't do figures with pikes, but as for the broom bristle thing, I use nylon paint brush bristles for vehicle radio antennas and after 40 years of doing that I am still on the same paint brush. So I suspect one broom would last several lifetimes of basing figures. The biggest advantage is once they are on the figure, they never need repair, because they don't break and you don't injure yourself when you put your hand on a stand of them.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Is this the derivation of " Brush with Death"
Don't tell him Pike !

You clearly miss the point (pun intended).

I purposely sharpen the end of pikes so that any opponent daring to touch my figures risks impalement.


(just kidding: I take time to file off the sharpness after I create the spear point).


donald

Ah, I feel foolish now. Oh well back to those pesky Vikings !
Paul

Weirdly, I recall a cartoon in a very old wargames magazine where the commander of a tabletop phalanx continues to explain an arcane point of the rules, impervious to the fact that his opponent has just impaled his hand on the phalanx!

Also somewhat weirdly (and more seriously), I purchased some 15mm metal figures from a well-known manufacturer a couple of years back where the pikes came as stiff metal (steel?) wire, flattened and sharpened (and that means needle-sharp) to form pikes. Good figures, but properly dangerous miniature pikes. Should have come with a health warning.