Paper Halberds

Strange how things happen sometimes. I was painting up the Miniarts Swiss infantry and I wanted to add a few halberds to the mix. The ones that come with the set, like the pikes provided...are in a word..crap.
If you want to use them you have to fit them with a "collar/sleeve" affair which doesn´t really hold...and looks bloody awefull. I tried to weld the halberd heads onto the florist wire but no joy.
Anyway..I came up with a solution and got on with it, and at the more or less the same time,  so did Will from Will´s Wargames!!!
The same idea!! :-D


This is my solution.
First the stuff needed. Normal Paper, a length of Forist wire 0.5mm, a sharp blade, some wood glue and some liquid plastic glue. By liquid plastic glue, I mean the stuff that is used in Kit making. I used both Pattex and Revell, both had the same result.

Fold a bit of paper, open it up and smear with  woodglue. Lay the florist wire  on the paper and fold the paper over, glueing the wire between both sides.. I´ve found the maximum length of wire than should be glued in is 0.5cm´s...any longer and it looks a bit daft. Press the paper as close as possible along the sides of the wire using a thumbnail.

When fully dried, use the sharp blade to cut out a halberd shaped head. When you´ve got the right shape and size, soak the head in liquid plastic glue. This (like with the toiletpaper cloaks) makes the paper turn virtually into plastic, and when that´s fully dried you can shave any little bits off as you please

Attach to the bods and paint.