"28mm Napoleonic Bayonets" Topic

Bonsoir,

Just wondered what your views are on how fragile these are?

IMHO….

Elite are best as they seem to be indestructible!

Front Rank are almost as good.

Perry's and Essex are good too.

Are Sash & Sabre as strong as Perrys?

Foundry and Old Glory are somewhat fragile. My Brigade Spanish are too?

What about Murowski, Westfalia and others?

After all there's nothing worse than painting loads of beautiful figures and the have the bayonets breaking off in their first battle.

Look forward to seeing what you think.

Cheers,

Paul

Seriously, brass wire and superglue. You will now have scale bayonets, indestructible and not the tent poles that manufacturers must produce because of the casting process. I grant the triangular cross section cannot be done, but it is massively overscale in any commercial product (inevitably)….which bend more than break off. So you straighten them and metal fatigue means….they break off !

The new Front Rank bayonets are pretty break-proof, I even file them down a bit because they are ridiculously thick.

Foundry varies – some are brittle, some are pretty robust. At least the French line I'm painting seem to have pretty robust ones (but nowhere near the FRs I mentioned above).

Here's a horror story: a couple of years ago, when I was getting into 28mm Napoleoncs, I bought a bunch of (metal) Portuguese line from Victrix (IIRC, North Star was casting for them). They came with spindly bayonets, many of them with a minor casting flaw where it met the muzzle of the gun, so they were particularly vulnerable to breaking off. Worse, they came in plastic clamshell packs without any foam, which was hell on the muskets and bayonets. Some even came bent in full circles! I managed to straighten most of them out, but it was nerve-wracking and of course I lost a few.

I filled the flaw with JB weld, which helps, but I'm still vaguely uneasy any time I use them. Having them bent in shipping and then bending them back induced a lot of metal fatigue, I'm sure, so I'm afraid to let other people touch them. I've even painted an extra pack to use as replacements when the inevitable breakage occurs.

They sure turned out pretty, though.

Luckily for others, though, Brigade Games picked up Victrix's metals, including the Portuguese. Lon at Brigade knew of my concerns (I'd contacted Victrix about it and they forwarded it on) and sent me some samples of his casting of the same figures. The flaw in the bayonet is gone, the metal is tougher, and overall the casting quality is better. So I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them now.

I've received Calpe figures with the bayonets or muskets bent completely over. I bent them back, no problem.

As wrgmr1 says Calpe are excellent.

Don't know how I forgot to mention them as I do have quite hundreds of them and never had a single bayonet break.

Look OK scale-wise too!

Might try the brass wire and superglue approach suggested by deadhead but is this better for dioramas rather than figures which are used a lot?

Cheers,

Paul

Cheers,

Paul

Brass wire is tough and resists bending. Superglue speaks for itself when metal to metal and a decent area of surface contact, as is the case here.

It does take a bit of work though. Might be best used to salvage broken bayonets…snag then is the replacements may put the originals to shame. Also they lack the triangular cross section, which even grossly out of scale, does look "right"

I snip them all off.

I snip them all off.As if this wasn't enough none of my units have flags either…

I can just imagine the poor figure designer going fetal screaming "This blasphemer, Mashrewba, has DESECRATED my creation!!!" while sobbing and whimpering in a corner…

Frank

I know -it is heartbreaking but they just seem to catch on everything and bend the musket -as well as been overscale (usually). The flags I may get around to as separate figs to stick in front of the unit. My battalions are only 12/14 figs strong so a flag doesn't look quite right.
Is there anyone out there making bayonets from brass tubing -ie cut down one side and fit the ring over the end of the musket barrel.

"Is there anyone out there making bayonets from brass tubing -ie cut down one side and fit the ring over the end of the musket barrel."

Now that is a good idea!!!!

Is there anyone out there making bayonets from brass tubing -ie cut down one side and fit the ring over the end of the musket barrel.

That would sort of be representing a socket bayonet, with, well, a socket bayonet, wouldn't it?

I like it!

Yes there is SOMEONE……… he is the guy selling the "Big Issue". (UK readers will understand). US readers might remember him saying "Buddy can you spare a dime?"

Great idea. It could be done in brass photo-etching but the result would be very soft indeed ….and penury!

Overscale bayonets work well. My brass idea I have tried. It is to scale. It is robust. It looks poor…….

Sometimes scale is not everything. Not often, but sometimes.

I am learning more and more about scale in paint as well as figures. The bayonet may be thicker than the musket (most 28mm figs) but it looks right from any distance.

I got a Westfalia Highlander this morning -his bayonet is slim and strong -I may have to reassess my approach!!!