Greetings! Today I will be going through a tutorial on how to make spikey helmets or pickelhaubes! Today's tutorial uses a Warzone Resurrection Bauhaus Vorreiters, but the methods used here could be applied to any number of projects including Blood Axe themed Orks to German themed Imperial Guard. Please note that this is a advanced tutorial involving sharp metal, pliers and superglue, for younger readers, please seek the assistance of an adult for this project!
First up, the materials. These should all be readily available from your local hobby craft store, I have included a link at the end of this article for where I get all my supplies from, and a direct link for the pikes has been included for your convenience:
Materials & Tools
Needles or brass pikes - Buy the ones I use HERE
Pliers - NOT regular hobby clippers they may not be strong enough and could break!
Pin-vice
Drill bits - The size will depend on the type of needle/brass rod you are using.
Blu-tack
For my spikes, I chose 100mm Pikes & Lances, which are normal used for 25mm historical miniatures. you need to make sure that you get the Pike & lances set that specifically states fashioned to a point, other wise you will end up getting a flat spear type head. You get 40 Pikes to a blister for under £5.00, which is enough to do a lot of Orks, Guardsmen or an entire Bauhaus army!
Today's guinea pig is the head off a Warzone Resurrection Vorreiter pilot, so to start things off I careful mark and drill a hole 2mm deep into where I want the head pike point to sit. If I need to drill further I can always do so when dry fitting the pike point later.
Now we need to take a look at the pike/lance. As mentioned before, you need to make sure that these are rounded and not the flat spear point types - unless of course you are actually after flat points for your miniatures. The piece we will be using is the tip, normally coloured silver after being fashioned. As a rule, I cut just above where the silver area begins and trim towards the point after cutting. Of course if you have a good eye, you can just go ahead and take a visual measurement and then score a mark on it with a craft knife.
Now this is a important bit, before doing any cutting, take a large piece of blu-tack, roll into a ball(ish) shape and place onto a cutting mat. Take your pike/lance and place point down into the blu-tac - not all the way down as you do not want to blunt the tip by accident. The blu-tack will absorb any cutting force from the pliers and prevent shards flying around the place or worse into you! Once you have placed the lance safely, cut with a pair of pliers NOT clippers - Hobby clippers can and will break under excessive force against hard metal, prevent unnecessary costs and medical care, use pliers!
Once you have cut the tip off, you will be easily able to fish it out of the blue tac. Now using your clippers or tweezers, pick the pike point up and slot it into the drilled out hole of your miniature's head. Depending on the type of drill bit used, you may find some resistance, in this case carefully twist the pike point while pushing down, this will again prevent injury or damaging the pike point. Once you are satisfied with the positioning, remove, add glue and put back into place.
If you find that there are gaps where the pike point has gone in, you can easily fill it with liquid green stuff. This took no time at all to do, at around five minutes tops per head, so doing a unit won't take too long at all. Although you can use needle heads for this also, I find the pikes to have a less sharp feel to the tips, which makes the miniature less dangerous to handle once built. In regards to the remaining brass rods, you can use them for any manner of hobby projects including pinning, so nothing at all is wasted! Now from a gaming point of view, be careful where you lay your hands, accidentally palming one of your miniatures could end up becoming a painful experience...
All the tools and materials for this tutorial were bought from: Wayland Games - Discount Wargames
Thanks for reading,
DiStudios
The 14th Legion
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