"Making thick spears thinner." Topic

In this pic from the latest Warhammer community TOW post, you can see the black spear looks thinner compared to the he lighter coloured spears.

Obviously thicker spears are best, as they don't break easily, but it doesn't mean they have to look thick.

Cut off the plastic/metal/resin molded spear, flush with the figure's hand, top and bottom. Get a Pin Vise (mini hand drill, comes with mini drill bits), and drill a hole in the hand. Insert a brass metal spear, available from hobby suppliers, e-Bay, etc. Cut the spear shaft to required length, and glue into the figure's hand. Paint, and game.

Here are the spears I recently ordered. Very satisfying, very easy to use. Here is an example of a valid, extremely useful, Pin Vise.

The brass wire spears are much thinner, very stiff, and the formed tips are VERY SHARP. They just need to be cut down to the needed length (pikes, spears, javelins, etc.), and painted. Be aware that these spears pose a genuine stabbing risk to players who carelessly grab the minis on the tabletop… You have been warned. Cheers!

You can also make your own with a dremel.

Use the cutting wheel to cut to length and the same tool for file down the point.

Make one pass on each side to get the point flat and then do the same to get the point shaped.

Just in case it's of interest, we're selling wire spears and pikes now too, in 40mm/50mm/80mm/100mm options: pendraken.co.uk/weapons

Or just paint it black.

I may do a test on this at some point.

Another option is to simply trim, sand, file the spear down.

Drilling gets awfully fiddly, especially if trying to use the same spear tips, more drilling and gluing. X many figures.

I suspect painting holds the key, especially with more ornate spears and staffs.

Black is known to be slimming…

…sorry, what was I saying? Oh yes, spears.

I suspect painting it darker means edge lighting is more contrasting than on a lighter colour, so the dark spear visible is narrower. A lighter spear will look similar to the lighting on its edges, thus looking like one fat spear.

That's my take on it.

Painting on vertical lines, either wood grain or highlights, may also help. As vertical stripes are also slimming…