"Evergreen polystyrene rod for spears?" Topic

I found a company that makes polytstyreene rods and sheets for modelling. Has anyone ever made spears from the rods for 15mm? What thickness would look right for 15mm? They have different thicknesses 0.03, 0.04, 0.8 inch aka .75, 1, 2 mm.

I prefer thin brass rod or steel wire.
Donnington sell them in packets and I find they work well for spears, pikes and flag staffs.

B

I've used their .75 mm rods for either spears and pikes, and I love them!

+1 Warspite1.

Make your own, but the Alloy NorthStar uses is the best.

I've converted to plastic broom bristles – cheap, easy and look great. Durable as hell too.

I agree, make your own.

A long time back, when I was working weekends as an electrician putting myself through college I was making spears from old copper wire we'd stripped out of houses being reconditioned.

Lighting wiring is/was 1.5mm2 (16AWG for Americans) so diameter of a strand was about 1mm, perfect to 25mm. If it bent, you straightened it. The chances of it snapping were almost zero and, with a set of flat nose pliers you could flatten the end, snip it into shape and have a really lethal spear point upon which to leave your blood every time you pulled them out of storage, or tried to move them playing a game or while painting them… blasted things.

I've also used wire from the middle of those little glitzy paper wraps that are used for all sorts of gifts, candy, dust catching pressies. Remember a new cheap toothbrush can provide a veritable thicket of spear points for 5/6mm figures.

Push broom thick bristles work well. Crush the end flat and cut to spear point.

Here's the pitch that tipped me over: YouTube link

Flashman++
bristles for the spears and pikes!

What motivated me to use bristles was having a bunch of Ptolemaic phalangites with lowered pikes. Now I can move them into proper contact; the pikes just push out of the way and pop back into place as I remove the dead :-(

Cheers,
John

Thank you for the link. I'll give it a try.