Strenghtening swords and bayonets

[General Slade]

There is a thread on TMP at the moment that discusses the idea of strengthening swords and bayonets by coating them with a thin layer of super glue or white glue. Broken bayonets and bent pikes being the bane of my life, I was wondering if anyone has ever tried this and whether it has any appreciable effect?

[Mike]

Surely the amount of glue needed to make any appreciable difference would be such that the weapon looks like a blob?

 

 

[General Slade]

Mike wrote:

Surely the amount of glue needed to make any appreciable difference would be such that the weapon looks like a blob?

That’s rather what I thought. I’m clutching at straws here because my attempts at drilling the hands of 15mm pikemen and replacing their pikes with piano wire have been totally unsuccessful.

[Deleted User]

I’ve been using this technique to make putty hold sharper edges, can’t see how it’ll add any significant strength to pewter minis though. I used a toothpick to spread it around more evenly but super glue is brittle so it’ll most likely flake off when spears and blades bend.

Is it the drilling hands or the piano wires that was unsuccessful?
Xyston minis has spears that are down right lethal if you haven’t already tried them.

https://www.scotiagrendel.com/Xyston/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_16_56&products_id=162&zenid=kps571n2hn950narltuv629h04

[General Slade]

Deleted User wrote:

Is it the drilling hands or the piano wires that was unsuccessful?

It was the drilling I couldn’t get the hang of.  I was trying to repair some old Minifigs but the hands are pretty small in the first place, plus the shaft of the pike is often attached to the body of the figure at some point so I ended up having to carve away at the figure as well as drill the hands.  So I started with a bent pike and ended up with a total mess.

[Mike]

Surely someone makes pikes/spears with hands grabbing them as one cast piece?
Then just lop the original models hand off and stick on the weapon?

[Not Connard Sage]

Not that easy with a small contact area, and using cast metal puts you back where you started anyway.

I bought some Minifigs 15mm Palmyrans (the worst performing army in WRG) back in the 80s. The cataphracts arrived with spaghetti kontos. All 40 of them. Trying to get those straightened without breaking was…character building. Drilling the hands and using piano wire was a non-starter, not enough hand to drill.

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[Mike6t3]

I’m not sure if this article will be of any use when trying to attach wire pikes etc. It still sounds fiddly. I’ve not tried it myself but perhaps worth trying on a single figure.

Mark Fry’s guide to attaching those pesky 15mm spears and pikes!

As already mentioned I think glue would ruin the look.

Mike

 

 

 

Get there fastest with the mostest and roll highest.

Mike

[General Slade]

Thanks for the link Mike6t3.  It actually includes advice specific to Minifigs.  Unfortunately, I don’t understand the technique.  The author suggests removing the top half of a spear but not the bottom half, flattening the hand with pliers and then drilling through that.  I don’t understand how you would do that with the bottom half of the spear still attached.  Or am I missing something?

[OB]

Minifigs are particularly difficult to drill.  I’ve never managed it successfully.  However, on occasion I’ve ended up with the front of the hand removed by the drill.  It is possible to file in a bit deeper so it will accommodate a spear/pike shaft.  I added a micro dot of green stuff, more blue than yellow.  Let it be for 1o minutes and then shaped it with a scalpel and indented for the fingers.  It worked.

I wouldn’t like to do it multiple times.

OB
http://withob.blogspot.co.uk/

[General Slade]

OB wrote:

Minifigs are particularly difficult to drill. I’ve never managed it successfully. However, on occasion I’ve ended up with the front of the hand removed by the drill. It is possible to file in a bit deeper so it will accommodate a spear/pike shaft. I added a micro dot of green stuff, more blue than yellow. Let it be for 1o minutes and then shaped it with a scalpel and indented for the fingers. It worked. I wouldn’t like to do it multiple times.

Nor would I.  I think it is going to be one of those things that has to wait until I win the lottery and I can afford to pay some poor unfortunate to do it for me.

The only problem is I don’t do the lottery.  But apart from that it’s a solid plan.

[bobm]

Cut above and below the hand leaving a mm or so (too bad if the top half has already departed all the way to the hand!).  Squish with pliers.  drill through the “squished” lump with a pin vice.  Carve fingers (if you must) after inserting new spear.

There's 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.....

[Mike6t3]

It’s not clear to me either, a picture would have been a godsend !

I think he means just leave a bit of the bottom half so that when it’s squashed you have a chunkier hand to drill ?

Get there fastest with the mostest and roll highest.

Mike

[General Slade]

That makes sense.  I still think I would need to hire someone with a steadier hand, better eyesight and a lot more patience to succeed though.

[Tony Hughes]

I use florists wire, a lot less lethal than piano wire and easy to bend back into shape.

I actually find drilling out with a power drill easier than a hand drill/pin vice. I have done many and only drilled through my nail once. Most of those were 10 or 15mm but I have managed 6mm as well.

 

 

 

[ian pillay]

I’ve used brush bristles in the past, you can squish them with pliers and the carve a spear point or sharp edge with a craft knife. They work pretty well and bounce back in to shape. The drilling can be a pain I must admit.

Tally-Ho! Check out my blog at…..
http://steelcitywargaming.wordpress.com/

[Jim Webster]

General Slade wrote:

That makes sense. I still think I would need to hire someone with a steadier hand, better eyesight and a lot more patience to succeed though.

 

I think you summed it up nicely there. I know people who can drill 15mm, and I know, after trying plenty of times, that I cannot. Just lack hand eye coordination

https://jimssfnovelsandwargamerules.wordpress.com/

[Etranger]

Minifigs spears are infamously bendy & spaghetti is definitely the right word for them. I’ve cut them off many a 15mm Minifigs ECW pikeman to replace them with florists’s wire. Piano wire is far too hard to cut – it’s completely buggered up my Xuron cutters. You can still draw blood with florist’s wire though!

My approach is to cut away all the spear/pike & then drill out the hand using a hand chuck and appropriately sized microdrill. Done carefully, with good illumination and patience then I haven’t had a problem. Occasionally there is a need to glue a spear across an ‘open hand’. I find that using a razor saw or file to put a shallow groove into the hand helps.

Pendraken are releasing spears/pikes in a variety of lengths, which look like they should work for pikes etc. The sizes look reasonable for 15-28mm figures. I’ll pick some up to try at some point. https://www.pendraken.co.uk/weapons-1094-c.asp

To return to the original topic. I haven’t done this systematically, but a thin coating of superglue does seem to provide some strengthening to weakened swords etc.

[Author]

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