ith so many people interested in using Pikemen in their Empire army – or perhaps just making their Spears nice and long – we thought it was time to bring together some of the conversion ideas that have inspired some of our other members. Each article goes through the materials and process involved in creating these pikemen.

Some time back, I had the bright idea of turning a mess of Empire spearman into a pikeman unit. I was inspired by Dave Talley’s page about making everything but the kitchen sink from the Empire plastics, and a modified “how to” article on the Merchant Prince site (thank you, Bugman, for the link!) The idea percolated around for a few weeks, and after a trip to the local hobby store revealed the proper materials were indeed available, the project was set in motion. I chronicled the process on the message boards of WPS and Warhammer-Empire.com , and garnered many comments and suggestions from the members of both boards. Much of this article is taken from the various threads on those message boards.

Construction:

I used Plastruct 1/16″ coated wire to extend the plastic spears to pike-length. The wire is almost exactly the same diameter as the Empire spear shafts. This allowed me to hand drill a hole in the shaft and head of the spear, remove a mm or so of plastic from the wire, and end up with a pinned pike. The drilling out was difficult. If the hole started out off-center, I shaved it off and started over, as I could always make the plastruct length longer to compensate. I think that the drill bit was a 1mm, it was a tiny thing.

My plan was to have a first rank of 5 including command, and the next two ranks including two 40×40 bases and two infantry bases in the middle, set up so there are two or three “pusher” models in the third rank. Jockeying around the models to make the pushers fit properly was a challenge, but eventually I was able to get everything ranked up. The 4th and 5th rank of the 5×5 formation are the “pikes at rest” models. (the ones to the left of my picture)

The first pusher model was converted from the Empire artillery crew sprue and a Knight sprue lance. Another pusher was made from, of all things, a handgunner. Never, ever throw anything away! I used the shoulder plate from the arm that I clipped the first pushers lance from, and used it to cover a big gap on the left shoulder. Needed a little clean-up in places, but the overall result was better than expected.

I converted the rest of my spearmen, so I can field a unit of 30 if I so choose. The addition of a few “forward” pointing pikes behind the pusher models made the unit look MUCH better, as I suspected. A quick paint job and the pikemen were ready to hit the table

There ya go! Queek’s converted pikemen – article posted 07/2005

Hagen took the converted pikemen concept to a whole new level by basically constructing his “Republican Guard” pikemen practically from scratch. After a couple of shaky starts, he gathered together his experience and the opions of many on our Forums and created the pikemen below.

Concept:

Hagen decided to construct his pikes from brass rod instead of plastic. This gave a strong, straight pike but caused a few balancing issues, which were easily dealt with. Holes the same diameter as the brass rod were drille din each of the hands, and the pike slipped through and glued in place. The pike tips were cut from the spearmen sprues and Hagen used the mini-pennants form the knight sprue to add a bit of motion to the weapon.

The models have been assembled to appear very dynamic, as if the entire unit is preparing to receive a charge. The individual pieces of kit, and the positioning of the arms makes it look like a unit of individuals, rather than a robotic combat force. The figures shown in these photos are examples of how the moidels will appear in the unit. Many will fill more than one base to give more room for the dynamic movement of the models.

There you have it! Pikes from Hagen von Loewenstein. – article posted 07/2005

Blackgriff1 intended to extend the spears on his spearmen so that they actually looked like they were packing spears instead of stubby sticks. What he ended up with was a place in the Pikemen article because if those don’t look like pikes, I don’t know what does.

Concept:

Blackgriff1′s pikes were done in a similar fashion to Queek’s. By replacing the shaft of the spear on the plastic spearmen, he ended up with a weapon with much longer reach. Coupled with a bright paintjob, these models look like the perfect pikemen for an Empire army.

The pike shafts were made from twisted floral wire (to the right), which gives a bit of texture to the shaft and preserves the feel of a “wooden shafted weapon”. The Manufacturer of the wire is Firbre Craft – Bright Stem Wire – White wrapped 18 ga wire. It cost about $2.00 for 25 18inch long wires. The tips were cut from the plastic spears, and reattached to the floral wire.

Spear extensions, as done by Blackgriff1. – article posted 07/2005