Friday 9 October 2020

Boar Spears

 

I need to model some spear heads for the bulk of my Italian infantry. These will be plastic Perrys, and I could probably fit spearheads onto the spear-shafts they come with. But from whence can I source the spearheads? They are an unusual shape and rather large - I'd estimate at least 8 or 9mm long - and I believe they are a sort of boar spear, without the cross bar. Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Plastic would be perfect since they could be glued in place, but I could drill and glue metal. 

15 comments:

matheo said...

TAG sells "italian heavy spears" in their renaissance weapon range. They are different than those shown here, but are still considerably larger than usual spearheads, so if you want to make the troops visibly different from other spearmen, this may be the way to go. I was fitting them to Perry figures (open-handed metal ones) and they looked the part. Check them out here: https://theassaultgroup.co.uk/product/italian-heavy-spear-x-10/

BigRedBat said...

Hi Matheo, Thanks I'll have a look at those. But ideally I'm hoping to find the triangular shape in the image.

Lasgunpacker said...

Plastic sword blades? That would be relatively easy to source, and certainly could be broader than a standard spear head.

In the dark pre plastic days, hammered brass spears would be the recommendation, but for units like you build that would be rather a lot of work (plus pretty stabby on the table top).

Peter Douglas said...

I’ve wondered about those spears too, but I’ve no source!

Skull & Crown said...

I would cut them out of thin styrene. Stack 3-4 pieces at a time and glue them on the edge, then cut them. Glue them onto the shafts and then file edges if need be. should work, and give you that Cinquedea on a stick look that I think you are looking for.
Cheers
Ths

BigRedBat said...

I'm going to need a lot- I'm thinking I might either get a metal spearhead cast, or else get some printed. It might be a reasonable job for a printer, since they are very small.

Condottiere said...

I believe they are a type of langue de boeuf as show in this photo from the Higgins Collection:

http://www.higgins-collection.org/artifacts/no.39


BigRedBat said...

Bingo! Yes you must be right. I estimated the blade length as 60cm, today, based on the engraving, which tallies really well with your 66cm specimen, also the overall length is similar. Thanks very much, indeed! Now I just need to work out how to make them. :-)

Condottiere said...

I've ben wrestling with the same topic for sometime (on and off). I even thought if I could get a 3D printable file done, I could have them printed. A local game store offers printing services. ALso-I do not know if you ran across this site, but it is chock full of great information on the period. It's in Italian, but if you have Google translate running when calling up the page, it auto translates the page:

http://stemmieimprese.it/

BigRedBat said...

I think printing could be the way to go- they are small and would be easier to fix if printed, especially if designed with a small hole that the end of the shaft could fit into. I'll let you know if I should get anywhere with it.

Thanks for the tip on the Italian site- I'll have a look!

Bedford said...

Simon,

You could try the spear heads from the Mahdist Wars plastics as they are lager and more of a lozenge shape. I'm not at all sure how one would attach then to metal shafts without some micro pinning, which I have done before to repair weapons, so it is possible, but with a lot of patience required.

BigRedBat said...

Thanks- but these heads are really large- perhaps 10-12mm. I'm increasingly thinking that the way ahead is to get them 3d printed.

Bedford said...

Yeah, that actually never crossed my mind! This newfangles tech has me feeling more like a relict every day lol

Condottiere said...

Here's an interesting method for making long spearheads using plastic comb teeth. Looks fairly convincing to me. I still have to experiment to see how it'll look, but the results on this video seem rather convincing. See from about 4:00 minutes in. https://youtu.be/e1AXh-j8NRE

BigRedBat said...

What an interesting find! I'd imagine that the spear heads might be big enough to drill into, in which case the spears could have a metal shaft. I'm definitely going to try that! Off to scour the house for combs...